Siege of Atrocity
by Yiuokami
Summary: The snake married the rabbit and the rabbit responded by growing horns, while the captured god bids his time. AU, quasi-YxR.
1. Rule 8

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_The horizon does not exist...you can eternally head west._

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"Yakumo, do you take-"

"Yes, she does. No need to keep asking like that."

Yakumo glanced sidewards, but before she could speak silver serpents manifested from her gown; she clenched her teeth and kept silent.

A servant came from the right and held up a cushion, Ryuma took the dull brown crown off of it. As he turned to her, he said :"Yakumo, with this I will hold you under my control forever, as my wife."

"Stop..." She stepped back, but there was little in her power to do.

Suddenly, a screeching loud noise broke the icy silence. The large entrance doors fell forward, the crowds stepped back to avoid being squashed under them. A small, humanoid form stood in the bright light coming from the hall, his face without expression but they all senses the destructive aura around him. Fearsome whispers rose from the crowds.

Yakumo's face lit up as she too recognized him. "Mashuranbo!" Ryuma looked tense for a moment, then smirked and placed down the crown. "Do not fear, for I control him with my dark card." It did little to calm the crowd though.

Taking Yakumo's arm, he took a few steps down the stairs. "Come forward Mashuranbo. Come and see how I marry the girl you love."

Mashuranbo obliged.

"See how he obeys me? Mashuranbo, kneel down!"

Mashuranbo obliged.

Horror crossed Yakumo's face, mixed with sadness. Ryuma turned to her, holding onto her arm as he stepped back on the platform. With his free hand he took the crown again. The whispers died down.

Yakumo's eyes remained on Mashuranbo, who looked right back at her, entirely stoic. "Are you still there...?"

As the crown came closer to Yakumo, it growled againt. With a sudden quick movement it warped its form and twisted itself around her head. It returned to its original shape quickly, growled once more and then froze. Yakumo felt a chaotic opressive energy work its way into her mind, into every corridor of her awareness before she could even so much think about a way to defend. As ice her mind and her will frozen, until there were only the words of Ryuma.

Nothing else had a meaning.

Ryuma stood still in the hall, the icy cloud settling slowly around him. He would love to smite someone for this, someone who would squirm and respond and scream, but he knew it had no use. He just had to bare it, keep perfecting his instructions, keep elaborating the system and...

Darnit, he was the emperor! He ruled all of the American continent! He should not be having to deal with stupid little word misinterpretation issues!

Calm down. I can handle this. I've led wars and invasions. I can deal with retarded little problems like this. he told himself.

"Mashuranbo, those were not invaders. Those were your reflections."

Anything that looks out of place with the court may be attacked.

After Mashuranbo had killed yet another random person he had come across, Ryuma had decided to issue the order that Mashuranbo was only to attack things that looked out of place. He had had him introduced to every court member, had shown him images of every general or royalty that might be visiting. Random non-important people were okay, so that should have sufficed.

Too bad he lived in a castle made out of ice.

At first, everything had been glorious to Ryuma. He had obtained the most powerful entity on the planet as his obedient servant and the last human on the planet as his trophy wife.

From what he had heard, Yakumo was actually just around seven years old mentally. Against expectations, she knew how to behave properly even with a mind-numbing spell on her. Yakumo by default knew fancy things like how to use tableware or walk with a dress without tripping on it and was generally very elegant. Well, except for one little incident, but that was to blame on one of the magical snakes that composed her dress going after a mouse.

Mashuranbo on the other hand was...disappointing. Sure, he obeyed basic principles like like sit, stay, kill, come closer, go away, play dead, but so far the most complicated command he had been able to execute was "roll over the floor". Anything beyond that was lost on the "god of destruction".

As usual, there was no reply to his statement. Mashuranbo stood as a statue between the busted western wing of the castle, waiting for orders. Ryuma still hoped somebody would come and tick him off so that he could vent his frustration somewhere.

The first to appear unfortunately was Yakumo, whom he could not zap as her stupidly feeble body would probably die of it. The court had figured this out very quickly, so if something had to be done during little crisis situations such as now, they always sent her first.

Emotionless, the human doll said :"The ministers wish to inquire to your wellbeing."

"Idiots. Tell them to get over here and clean this mess up!"

Yakumo bowed briefly and then retreated, doing as she was told. She quickly made her way down the hallway, through the door, back to the center of the court. On the way, she met Unga.

"What happened?'

"We have no more western wing."

"Is lord Ryuma alright?"

At the worried sound in the old one's voice, a distant Yakumo looking through the dull eyes jerked, wanted to reply he was alright, she did not have to worry. Even if she was close to downright hating Ryuma, she could not help pity this old woman who cared so much for him, something he failed to see.

"He seems to be." she said coldly, all she could do.

Unga sighed. "Can't keep this up for much longer." she muttered. Yakumo had heard her speak of foretold disaster if Ryuma were to try and control the "god of destruction". This fear was a sentiment Yakumo shared, but as usual could not express. Mashuranbo killed, and not just the way Mashura would strike down an enemy in rage. This was not to protect, this was...only for the sake of destruction.

"Did he give any orders?"

"The ministers are to come and clean up the mess."

"What? But...that's insane, we have workers for that! You stay right here, I shall go talk to him."

As creator of the crown, Unga had control over her as well, though Ryuma had the final say. However, since stay here did not directly conflict with telling the idiots to help clean the mess, she stayed put. In her far last corner of her mind, Yakumo breathed a sigh of relief. The ministers were a rowdy little bunch of reptiles and salamanders, fearing Ryuma, but fearing Mashuranbo more. They'd started raising their voices lately and like Ryuma were prone to take out their anger on random servants, so she did not like having to play storm crow.

Unfortunately, after several minutes the ministers came down the hall, looking to inquire what the turmoil was about. Yakumo tried with all her might to disobey the order, but could not. The moment the first passed her, a gigantic snapper turtle, she said :"Lord Ryuma wishes you to go clean up the destroyed west wing."

They had ignored her at first, but the group now froze put. "Excuse me?"

"Lord Ryuma wishes you to go clean up the destroyed west wing."

"Us? What got into his head?" balked the snapper turtle.

"As if we were common servants!" added another, a slender Dimetrodon.

"Shhh, not when she can hear!" said a undersized Hadrosaur.

"What does that matter? He already knows we complain! I wouldn't be surprised if he can hear everything we say with all that magic ice here." said the fourth, a tall salamander.

"I care neither. This is sickening, that brat already was bad before he got control of Mashuranbo and now he lost all respect! I'm won't be cleaning up anything!" As a dinosaur, the Hadrosaur minister was not cold blooded and had considerable less fear of Ryuma, since he could not get his brain frozen over spontaneously were Ryuma to take a dislike to him. He turned and returned to the court hall.

An uneasy silence fell. As vocal as the bunch could be, they were not entirely sure what to do. They could go there, and face an angry Ryuma and Mashuranbo, or be disobedient. The remaining three looked at each other for a moment, then the snapper looked at Yakumo.

"Why are you standing there like that?"

"Unga told me to stay here."

They bent closer to each other, Yakumo could not hear all they were saying, but there was something about her having been in the inner rooms.

"You, human. Do you know how the walls work?"

"No."

"Try it differently." said the Dimetrodon. "How much can he see through the walls?"

"Everything."

"The past and future too?"

"No and no." For as far as she knew anyway.

"Okay, listen, human. We were not here. We did not talk to you. If Ryuma asked whether you told the ministers to come, you did not do so. We are currently not serving as ministers, so you did not tell the ministers. Do you understand? You have yet to do it." said the snapper.

"I have yet to do it."

"Great. Come on, my friends, let's head back to our offices and pretend we were hiding after we heard the explosions, shall we?" said the salamander.

"Excellent idea."

With that, they were gone.

She remained alone, nothing happened for a long time, till Ryuma and Unga finally came down the hall. She turned, Ryuma seemed not much calmer, Unga was right at his side pleading about something. When he saw Yakumo stand still, he sharply glanced at Unga.

"I believe I told her to go fetch those useless ministers, did you stop her?"

"Yes, my lord, but only because-"

The old frog collapsed as the electricity coursed through her, she gasped for breath.

"Does everything have to be difficult lately?" He continued walked, made a short motion with his hand for Yakumo to follow and did not look back. She could hear Unga erupt in a coughing fit, wanted to go help her, couldn't. Ryuma walked a little before her, uncaring...she wished she had taken the sword.

Unga's claims he should at least treat the ministers with some respect meant nothing to Ryuma, they were weak fools. He'd already worn down a variety of ministers, they could be replaced. But she did have a point about it not being a good idea to be replacing ministers right now, as exposing them to Mashuranbo's presence might result in. He had left him in the west wing, since he couldn't destroy anything new there anymore.

Ryuma had war plans and the ministers were the ones engaging in the negotiations with the lower lords and their troops, arranging the armies. Even with Mashuranbo they could not face Rusephine without proper border defense. Military tactics and the like was new to Ryuma, something he only knew from his parent's stories. Within the realm of cold blooded vertebrates, a frost elemental had an explicit advantage, but the birds were different players altogether.

He left it as it was, for today, and ordered dinner to be served early. Ever since Mashuranbo was in the castle, he had noticed two things about his court : more gossip and more nervous servants trying harder to grovel. This annoyed him, since it meant they weren't groveling to their best before Mashuranbo had come.

In a few hours, those exact underlords would be arriving for report. Unga liked to call it negotiations, but that was a word for people who had to relent to demands. Hence, to Ryuma it was just report.

He watched Yakumo at the other end of the table, his only company. Well, not really, she was more like a doll. Briefly he considered taking the crown off and just play with her a little, to have a little fun, but no, he could do without extra fuss right now. Besides, he didn't want his perfect picture ruined. With her will free, she wouldn't act her part.

Without really noticing, Ryuma's thoughts shifted towards her and drifted on from there. As much as he hated to admit it, he also kept her alive because she was something like him. Many Enterrans were humanoids, but especially in this domain there were few who had actual human features. The others were animals, but Ryuma's parents hadn't been. After having escaped the camps they had been able to pass for humans for a long time, building a fortune with their magic skills and distancing themselves as much as they could from their miserable life they'd come from.

Sure, Ryuma had usurped his father, but that didn't mean he'd abandon the life style he'd been raised with.

He hadn't hated his parents, but he hadn't loved them either. They just weren't themselves anymore after they kept on absorbing their prey, gaining their strength. For that reason Ryuma had not even considered absorbing Mashuranbo. A second mind scourging through his soul, he knew he wouldn't quite be himself anymore after that. Especially not if it were those three idiots Yakumo had been traveling with. Quite a revolting idea, he might even end up growing sentiments.

A little voice of his own told him he had kept the human exactly for sentimental reasons.

Decorational reasons, he corrected himself. He kept Yakumo for decorational reasons. Shut up, voice.

As he mused, he did not notice the servant who entered and tried to pull his attention. So when the shivering iguana came up right aside of him and drew his attention, he sharply turned and snapped.

"What?"

The iguana shrank back and bowed as low as he could, apologizing reverently.

"Get to the point already!"

"The warlords have arrived and-"

"Gnnnnn...never a moment's peace anymore. Who allowed them to come early?"

Yakumo looked to the right. As Ryuma had cried out, a servant trying to serve the next course had dropped the plate. Ryuma was ticked off, just waiting for someone to be angry at...

She had no permission to speak, had been forbidden earlier to assist anyone who needed help and could not disobey...directly.

With a sudden jerk she stood up, shoving the chair back with force. Ryuma looked her way, immediately spotted the spilled food aside of the long table. "Look at that mess, what are you doing, Yakumo?" That little voice in his head said that maybe she was breaking the control. He shoved it back.

"I need to go." said Yakumo. She hadn't been forbidden to tell untruths either.

"Oh...uhm...watch out next time you stand up." he said, waving his hand dismissively, the focussed on the messenger again who had been summing up who was arriving.

Yakumo carefully walked around the servant cleaning, out of the hall and smiled.

She did not see Ryuma again for the rest of the day. While in her room, she did hear him storm in for a moment and enchant the walls to see something, but as she was not called she could not check what it was this time.

Night came and she followed the routine Unga had dictated her, even going to sleep on order even though she didn't want to dream.

It had been the same every night, an icy prison with no movement. At least when she was awake, there was the sensation of walking, seeing, hearing...asleep, there was nothing but the cold. She could not even close her eyes there. The cold spell stung and hooked endlessly into her mind, thoughts were all she had left. Even if she had to try and memorize the entire castle, map it out to test when awake, as long as she did something.

No words for you. The serpent swallowed the little bunny. You're in it's stomach now.

The crown had a voice, but it did not often speak to her. Was it malicious, did it want her to suffer the silence? All it said were taunts, attempts to tingle her hatred.

That was what Ryuma wanted, after all. He had given her a chance, invited her to take the sword.

One thought she had no trouble keeping, but it was a thought of hate. She should have taken the sword. If she had taken it, she might have been able to help Mashura, Sago and Kutal. Now, she was useless and they were suffering. She had seen Mashuranbo kill senselessly, as he had done in her dream. No...Ryuma's vision that had been. It was Ryuma's doing, that was not the true Mashuranbo.

Are you sure?

Mashura liked to fight, didn't he? He fought and he destroyed the cores of those he killed, giving them no chance to return. Maybe...

Desperately Yakumo shifted her thoughts back to the castle, to what she had seen that day.

Many more fearful eyes. The servants, the ministers, the generals. All fear their master and they feared her and they feared Mashuranbo. Three things they believed would kill them if they made a wrong move. The whispers were loud, they spoke without regard of her presence. Ryuma was mad, Ryuma was insane, it would be Ryuma's downfall...the same again and again. Mashuranbo, the god of destruction and Yakumo, the last of the accursed humans, they'd break free and destroy them all.

There were no pleasant thoughts to attain. The crown did not allow her to bring back memories of her times before the castle, she only remembered Mashura, Sago and Kutal as entities she loved, their personalities...but where had they met, what had brought them here? She had no way of telling.

But this night, something was a little different. She could move.

There was one pleasant thought, just that pathetic little one. She'd been able to spare one servant from being Ryuma's wrath ball this day, and maybe if she worked hard enough...

**· · · · · · ·**


	2. Alkaline Dreams

**· · · · · · ·**

Two days had passed since the destruction of the west wing, two very uneventful days for Yakumo. Ryuma was barely ever around, she knew he was making war plans. Tinges of anger nibbled at the edge of her mind but she wouldn't give into it, she had to concentrate on ways to get around the spell on her mind. Which was a particularly difficult task since without a break of routine she was essentially a robot, following it's programming.

However, a break from the routine came unexpectedly and suddenly. Unga entered her chambers some time around noon, practically dragged her out, hurried through a few halls without even getting the idea to order Yakumo to run after her and ended in Ryuma's council chambers.

"Let her try."

Yakumo found herself in the front gallery of Ryuma's quarters, where the ice wall was that he most frequently used to scry on the world. He stood before it, eyes closed and his fingertips on it. Huge cracks were all over the mirror, he mended them together with his magic. He did not turn to face Unga, but the twenty so vice lords did.

"You better not have brought Yakumo here." said Ryuma with a very sharp edge.

"My lord, Lucifen's spell attacks our En-binds, but she has none, she may be-"

"What a ridiculous idea! She'd probably be fried right away! Humans are feeble things, I've lived long enough to remember that!" said the snapper turtle. Right in tow came a stream of other complaints and objections, raised by both the ministers and the lords.

"Quiet!" yelled Ryuma. Ryuma had still not even opened his eyes but the mild glow about him indicated he was near the point of losing patience. His fingers continued tracing the breaks in the ice and it was dead silent for a minute or so.

When the Dimetrodon minister, Yuid, realized Unga was not backing away and whispered angrily :"Did you not hear? He does not want help from that filth, he would have said so if he did. Get her out of here."

Unga had little intention of listening to him. "He did not exactly tell me to leave. Now shut your trap and let him concentrate!"

"Well, who broke his concentration in the first place, hm?"

Unga grit her teeth and glared at Yuid, making it very clear he was to shut up now and she was not leaving. Trying to do so, anyway. "Vertigo, would you please give me a hand?" said Yuid to the salamander.

"I'm not touching that human." said Yuid and crossed his arms.

"I will." said Aiskek. In synchrony with Yuid he stepped towards the two. Yuid took Unga at her arm and started pulling her towards the still open door, Aiskek roughly pushed Yakumo in the back with his snout. Unga decided to let it be for the moment, she'd talk to Ryuma later and...then Yakumo tripped over her dress after a little too hard a push. She fell in the direction of one of the region lords, who backed off and knocked over a table.

"What part about quiet did you people not understand?" yelled Ryuma. Simultaneously, he released a charge of energy throughout the room, effectively zapping everyone into being quiet.

He finished up restoring his mirror and then took a deep breath. Taking a few steps back, he slumped down in a chair, holding a hand to his forehead.

The ministers and lords gradually started crawling up again, steadying themselves against dizziness. Most had thick enough skins to withstand such a charge and were happy no frost had been involved. At the same time they knew it would have been frost had Ryuma not just lost a fair deal of energy while trying to scry on things Lucifen did not want him to see. Sometimes Unga still saw him as that little feeble human boy in the middle of a hall of monsters that he was to control, never having realized what Enterran really meant. But he did now, and nobody used his supposed weakness against him right anymore.

She then remembered Yakumo and looked around. The human lay on the floor, Aiskek half on her. If the dinosaur had even been a half of his species' original size she might have broken something, but she was probably only bruised now. Aiskek seemed rather dazed and Unga helped him get back on his legs before pulling Yakumo half up. She groaned and brought her hands to her head, curling up as she sat. A startle went through Unga, as she was not supposed to be able to bring her hands close to the crown. But Yakumo made no moves to remove it, only seemed to respond to a headache.

"Are you alright?" asked Unga, hesitantly.

"I think so." she said, nodding once.

Unga took her arm and pulled her to her feet, feeling a shot of pain go through her back as she did so.

Everything was dead silent for about a minute while Ryuma mentally re-arranged his own magical energies. Then he suddenly stood up and looked over at Yakumo. "Unga. I assume you have a way to let her tap into the mirror?"

"Yes, my lord, off course."

A small wave of whispers went through the crowd, but nobody objected.

"Yakumo, come over here." She obeyed without falter.

He took her arm and brought her hand to the now smooth mirror, letting her fingers rest on it. "You know what this is. We are trying to estimate Lucifen's armies but she placed a very powerful spell against scrying on her lands. I do not know how she does it, but whenever I try to scry, her energy attack my en-binds. You do not have them as a human."

Yakumo looked blankly at her fingers on the walls and wondered whether she was supposed to be seeing something now.

"Unga." At command, the old one stepped aside of Yakumo and started chanting a spell while using a few magical gems to draw a circular pattern around Yakumo and words in a strange language. All the while, Yakumo stood perfectly still, the cold of the ice mirror slowly drawing into her fingers. She hadn't been told to stay like this, but she was curious to see what would happen.

"Once you start seeing beyond the mirror, start telling what you see."

But nothing happened and the crowd started whispering again. Ryuma gritted his teeth and turned. "I do need to repeat myself a lot today, don't I?" His glare made them stop silent.

"I'll try something..."

Yakumo didn't hear much more. Everything became blurry and she was drawn through the mirror. Suddenly she was in a yellow sky, far from the ice castle.

Disorientation came over her along with a wave of warmth. The sea was under her, yet she could see pyramids peeking out of the water. Her heart beat started to increase and she turned her head around, slowly starting to realize she was free. The crown on her head was still there and the silver serpent dress too, but they did not restrict her body like they had done minutes ago. She tried to breathe, but as she did she understood this was a dream scape of sorts...there was no actual air.

Where was she? ...Egypt? Egypt? Who said that and who was there an ocean here? All sorts of information started coming into her mind, ...what was going on?

This was Egypt, it had flooded after the meteorite hit, there were three cities to the west and..

"Stop it!" she cried, clinging her head with her hands.

"Why don't you stop?" said a familiar voice. "All that mental struggling only makes it harder, you know."

"Ryuma?"

"If I can enter your dreams, naturally I can accompany you here. Now move, before Lucifen detects you. As we go Unga's spell will gather information through you. Do not resist it, it might hurt."

The voice remained disembodied, an echo in her head, but she noticed something particular in this state...the crown did not force her to obey.

"Oh, wonderful." said Ryuma right away. "Don't make it difficult, Yakumo. Your body is still under control even if this layer of your mind isn't. Now go."

Yakumo did not reply but continued mentally probing her current state. She vaguely remembered Hakuba once telling her something about lucid dreaming...that had been Hakuba, right? He used to school her while they were traveling somewhere...

She tried to move and realized she had no idea how to do so.

Ryuma mentally sighed, she could even feel him fight back frustration. "Very well...the capital is...what are you doing?" She was mentally pushing him back.

"Why do you need this information?"

There it was again, a surge of repressed frustration. "This is not the time, Yakumo."

"Why?" she said, feeling her brewing frustration of the past few days welling up higher and higher.

"Because I say so, if you don't-"

"If I don't? You'll be using this information for a war, I don't want any part of it! If I tell you this, you'll use it to kill and-"

"Well then, how about I sent Mashuranbo to slaughter the village on the other side of the mountains? There will be war no matter what you do, but if you refuse, your lovely pacifism will make victims too."

That had the desired effect, and more. She stopped pushing against his control instantly.

"Why are you like this?" she whispered.

"I could ask you exactly the same." he said, at the end of patience. As much as she didn't want to, she obliged. Leaning forward a little, she noticed a different sort of gravity. It didn't come from below, rather from all around.

"Perfect. Consider every motion you make in this space as falling. Try to use the body you have here as little as possible, it's just an illusion anyway...just fall."

Yakumo leaned further, and saw the ocean far beneath her.

"I do hope you understand falling doesn't mean downward in this case..."

"I know." she said, a little irritated. She leaned even further and then looked up in the direction of where the map that had been planted in her mind told her to go. The capital was that way and all she had to do was ...fall?

The world around became a sharp line between two colors, the ocean and the sky. Flight in astral projection apparently was not quite the same as flight in a dream. Before she knew it, a green wall approached her with immense speed. Pain as she slammed in...through it.

Ryuma cried out. "Oh you...you do not have to have pain here! Stop imagining it!"

"Sorry!" she said instinctively as she noticed the stimuli she had experienced passed to Ryuma as well. She wasn't too sure though that she had imagined that pain...she'd been slammed into hard matter before plenty of times, this wasn't like it.

"Doesn't matter! Focus."

She took a proverbial deep breath and regained control of herself. While "falling" she had passed through several walls already and was now in a arched hall. No lights were on, but she could see anyway...seeing the energetic pattern of everything.

Something was off about this place. On one side it appeared an emulgation of classic styles, prominently Roman and Renesaince, yet it was filled with technological gadgets. Ryuma seemed even more confused about this, in fact, he seemed almost entirely unfamiliar with it.

Through the walls were electric wires, small screens and tabs were available for whatever purpose and under the floor there was a water line even. Unlike the other domains Yakumo had been in, the bird domain was at least as advanced as the humans civilization had been.

She tried to fall towards the nearest door, with relative success. She still shot through a little, but there were no more sensations of pain.

"Ryuma, where do I go now?"

"...how should I know? I've never been here before."After a brief pause he continued. "Usually a proper castle should have some sort of balcony that allows for an easy addressing of the troops on a plain...we'll find the throne room first."

Yakumo floated through a few more walls, then found herself in mid air again; this had only been an outer house located high above the city. For a moment she was stunned.

Beneath her was a beautiful city of green buildings, wide and prosperous. This really was nothing like the rest of Enterra. She recognized various structures from Egypt here, partially under water, but the actually city was crisp and high, teeming with life. Somewhere down an ally a group of chicks was played and she couldn't help but smile.

Feeling Ryuma's patience ticking, she moved on. Looking around she tried to find a palace of sorts and spotted something with a dome at the center of the city. She fell there and came to a halt in another hallway. Here too was a classic decor with technology underneath, even more so than in the earlier building. There was something were unsettling about this place though, unlike outside.

"Maybe I can..."

"What?"

"If I can go here, I can also go to the cyberspace, right? It's also information."

"...what the heck is cyberspace?"

"You'll see, let me try. I just need to find a terminal." Hakuba had explained her about this, before the war there had been a network, the Internet, so if there were computers here, a similar thing might exist. Data was also energy, like in the brain. She fell through a few more floors till she found a spot with most condensed energy.

"See what?"

"Have some patience!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

She decided to ignore him for the moment and concentrated on the area. It was an information center, many monitors and a soft buzzing. A few workers were around, occasionally moving about. She went closer to the core, the mainframe was at the center.

First, nothing happened. Then, she was in.

An ocean of information came crashing down, first incomprehensible, then so much at the time they could barely recognize anything. The city, food reserves, maintainance, streets, history files of the bird nation and their equivalent of trivial Internet business, all came crashing down on the two invading minds, no order to the mass. And not just that, in tow came thoughts and feelings of those living the area.

Exactly two seconds and 4 milliseconds managed to be painless before their minds became overloaded, threatening to pass out. It was like walking the entire city and its thousands of lives, all at the same moment.

And there was something at the center around which all life revolved like a hurricane. Utter loyalty to her.

The wave of information pushed Yakumo and her fellow spectator inevitably to that eye of the storm, and she gradually became a clear image amidst the hideous mass.

Yakumo was not one to tie expectations to one's appearance, yet this still took her aback. Cold and serene, Lucifen had all the looks of an angel. She was like Ryuma a fully humanoid Enterran, save for two white-pink wings on her back. Blonde hair and blue eyes to complete the illusion.

And those eyes looked right back at Yakumo.

She found herself standing somewhere, but couldn't see beyond Lucifen.

Eventually the bird queen spoke.

"How annoying. I did not expect you to figure that out."

She'd known. She'd known since Yakumo had fallen through the spiritual barrier of the city, and yet had been let in.

"Indeed I did. I suppose my curiosity is a flaw, you learned more than you were supposed to. I congratulate you, Ryuma. Using this human as your tool...but you did not know of this way to gather information, so consider it a streak of luck. Don't expect it to uphold."

Lucifen closed her eyes, and at the same moment, the same searing pain passed through Yakumo and Ryuma's mind as when they'd entered the city.

All went blank.

**· · · · · · ·**

As from a nightmare Ryuma woke up, heart thumping and feeling warmer than he should in an ice castle. He stared ahead for a while, looking at the curtained roof of the bed. With no specific thoughts, he remained like that for a while as his brain processed all the little bits of information he had received.

Maybe nightmare was the wrong word, as not all the information was horrendous...well, most of the trivial elements did count as horrendously stupid. Cyberspace and hyper reality...he'd been familiar with astral space, but those concepts were new to him. Artificial astral space? Humans just had to pollute everything, and now the birds had adopted their habits.

He didn't know how long it took for the turmoil in his head to settle, but something slowly started dawning on him. War. Invasion plans...there was hidden information Yakumo hadn't been able to reach, but the word had been all over the so called digital space of the bird empire. They were planning an invasion, but not the sort of invasion he had anticipated...

The others were all gone. Kraken, Dyhanger, Chimeras... Lucifen's conquest over them were praised victories in the Avian nation. Chimeras and Dyhanger had both been killed by a stealth invasion, a small group led by Lucifen heading in as the armies were distracted by a false invasion. Kraken's end didn't even warrant that, Lucifen had simply killed her shortly after they had found Yakumo. That explained why the bird queen hadn't used her temporal powers to do something about the defense mechanism...she'd been stocking up energy to deal with Franken.

To some degree, Ryuma felt massively insulted that she had considered Kraken more of a threat that had to be dealt with than him. To another degree, he was glad to still be alive. And then a strange thought entered his head. Why was Lucifen expecting to lose so much energy on killing Yakumo that she couldn't just rid the human first and then deal with Kraken?

Speaking of the human, her scent was awfully strong at the moment.

Looking aside, Yakumo was about 20 inches to the left on the same bed. Ryuma startled and leaped up. Whose bright idea was it to put her in his room?

He staggered off the bed, managed to steady himself and then promptly topled over.

His father had once jokingly said Ryuma's conception had all been a big accident induced by drunkenness, followed by a horrible morning like this.

...

As Ryuma's brain started pulling associations from his newly updated memory banks to that word, Ryuma would've hit the floor if he hadn't already been there. What was essentially the Enterran bird equivalent of the Internet had its share of horrible fanfiction.

**· · · · · · ·**

A small week passed since the incident with the mirror and the castle was rife with rumors about what exactly had happened. All agreed though that Ryuma's current state of unease was induced by the contact with the human filth. Information overload was not something that occurred to them.

Ryuma, unable to tell truth from rumor, hadn't been able to figure out how or when the invasion would take place, so he had given some blurry orders to his ministers to prepare for about 37 scenarios. In an attempt to block out all excess information, he hadn't needed much will power to concentrate on explaining all scenarios to his ministers. For the most part, it had been comprehensible. The ministers worried about the mysterious outburst like "Oh dear en-core, why? Why pink swimming pools?" and "No, no! You don't eat fish with cheese! Why do you even have cheese?", but Ryuma would recover fairly quickly from those.

Yakumo for her part remained the steadfast little doll the crown forced her to be, but in her mind the very same information whirled around. Her inability to express herself caused addition stress. Most random information passed her mind's eyes without much attention given, as most she did not understand, but the ice prison her mind was trapped in was no longer empty ice alone. The talk of war and expanding the glorious avian empire had been all over the bird nation. The beasts, the phantoms and the oceans had been enslaved already, next were the insects. Last were the reptiles, some said it would be the easiest victory aside of the masterless insect region, others said Mashuranbo would make it the most difficult. Word of him and Yakumo were tinted with fear and uncertainty. Enterrans used the word human as humans used the word monster, and human was the most spoken word. Why was a human tied to the once powerful god of destruction?

She felt there was something she didn't know.

Yakumo slightly raised her head and found herself at the dinner table. Ryuma looked worn out and tired, still trying to keep up the part of emperor, but more and more failing. She felt slightly guilty at being amused at the odd little moments Ryuma would have since the event, but at the same time she could also see the storm around his head. A stingy thought tended to come up whenever she looked at him : there he was, something stuffed into his mind that made him different from his original self ... not so fun when it's happening to yourself, is it? Not a thought she liked, but there it was, pushing for space alongside of her compassion.

Another thing bothered her. What he'd said about her pacifism costing lives. True, it had been a set up, a threat to coerce, but in essence Ryuma was right. If Yakumo had persisted in her absolute pacifism, she would've been dead now and there'd be nobody to help the surviving humans.

From the corner of her eyes she saw the servants. Fearing. Also hungry. She had learned by now to spot hunger on a reptile, and they were thinner than usual. Stress maybe, or Ryuma had in a fit of anger put them on a diet. It didn't matter. She started eating slower.

Courses were changed, she didn't eat much. When the last plate was taken away, she stood up and followed it, making vague attempts to continue eating. Her order had been to finish the courses. Well, she was doing that. Nobody had said anything about her eating speed. Or where the food was to go. Ryuma never noticed her leaving, to engulfed in training his mental archives in what to and what not to remember.

The servants were obviously nervous by her presence, but dared not push her away or object. She made it all the way to the kitchen. The order was to empty her plates, and the crown found the actions of emptying the plates by giving the food away to be valid.

They shied away from her as she stepped up to the piles with tableware, gathered from Ryuma's dining hall, the minister quarters and the rest of the court. All of them left quite a bit of their meals, none of which the servants touched. A similarly easily defied rule : they weren't allowed to eat from the royal plates because Ryuma didn't like the idea of lowlife eating from the same ware as he did. But they were allowed to eat whatever fell aside by accident. Starting with her own food, she wiped off the remnants on an empty area and stepped back. Weary eyes stayed on her and nothing happened, till a small crocodile skippered forward and quickly snatched some of the food, then disappeared again. Another followed and then another.

A vague smile appeared on her face for the first time since Black Mashuranbo had been born. She stepped closer again and wiped the food off of all the other plates as well. The servants didn't understand why, but it didn't take them long to figure out she meant no harm. After being done she stood by and ate her dessert while watching the makeshift feast. Once finishing that last bit of her course, the crown forced her to continue the scheduled routine, namely excuse herself from the table.

She walked up again, sat down at the table and asked :"May I leave?"

Ryuma had been frantically scribbling something on a paper and hadn't noticed her absence till he actually saw her sit down. He looked at her with surprise and suspicion.

"Where did you go?"

"The servants took away the food. I had not finished eating."

Ryuma was about to snark something when he realized he didn't actually know how much humans needed to eat and he had changed the dinner course earlier today to try out some bird recipes, just to get it out of his head. He was too tired to think about it further, but the network in his brain still dug up associated information. It told him human neurology, which he knew by now was the brain and thereby mind, was identical to the Enterran mind, affecting her eating speed and blablabla. It drove him crazy, he never wanted to know such stuff. Especially not stuff that suggested humans and Enterrans were technically on the same level.

Something else was off, it took him a while to figure it out. Yakumo was sitting there as usually, looking down respectfully and...

She was smiling a little. He couldn't remember her smiling since the first time they'd met, when she'd been telling about her father. This was...discomforting.

"You can leave." he said, en edge in his voice.

She stood up, bowed and left, walking out past him. As she did so, her face suddenly shifted a little to look right at him. Suddenly her eyes were no longer empty, her smile ceased. For a split second Ryuma saw the real Yakumo, then she was past him.

He listened for a moment to her fading footsteps, then turned in his seat and called her. She turned around, wearing the mask again. "Yes?"

"... nothing. Leave." Ryuma sank back in his chair, rubbing his forehead as he felt migraine well up.

"I will."

_Soon._


	3. Magi Tek

**· · · · · · ·**

Carefully she wiped away a few bloodstained feathers that were on the table before her. The flickering lights made it difficult for her eyes to adapt to the darkness and see the victims, but their scent was overwhelming. Simple desk operators, a few of the security hawks and a cleaner, all has been indiscriminately slaughtered. A mild scent of burning accompanied the scent cloud, but nothing betrayed the identity of the criminals. This along with the absolute lack of electronic verification of said criminal's identities in itself indicated who they had been. A perfect execution indicated one thing only in this world.

Lucifen knew there were rebels amongst the robots, even the ones working here. But the necessity of their presence in her city would soon end. "Gabriel, have it arranged for these birds to be given a decent cremation." Her second in command bowed briefly and turned away. The queen remained and walked further into the hall, psychokinetically broke the flickering lamps and readjusted her eyes before attempting to reboot the computer, only to receive a blue screen with a mocking version of herself dancing on it. Lucifen found this a particularly tasteless type of joke, especially considering the massacre around. So typical of these human-made models.

It didn't matter, she'd figure out sooner or later what information they had been after. At the moment, there were more important things to worry about. Whatever information the robots had was little in comparison to what Ryuma might know. The bulk of the information he and Yakumo had gained would be useless to them, but they'd been beyond several firewalls and since the transfer had not been made through electronic means, it would be hard to track. At one end, she wanted to berate herself for not having accounted for the human, on the other side, she could not have known. A proper strategist can adapt to unforeseen circumstances, so ...

The robots considered humans their gods, their creators. For machines, they had a peculiar, almost religious disposition towards this brand of organic lifeform. They were programmed that way after all.

She tapped her fingers on the board and bit her lip, staring the the mockery of her a little while longer before making up her mind.

**· · · · · · ·**

Something peculiar had occurred to Ryuma. Stories, fanfiction, poems, epics, all those things he'd accidentally absorbed from the bird Wired ... his actions with marrying Yakumo appeared like something from those stories, except that in them, the heroes would usually barge in and save the damsel at the last moment. Also, in those stories innocent Enterrans were saved from villains, but who'd save a human? Aside of the fools whom he also controlled now. Heck, humans were the villains of those stories quite often, at other times, it were the evil machines of the humans turning around and backstabbing the oh so gracious bird empire that had given them refuge and protection.

Robots...he wasn't unfamiliar with them, but didn't understand them either. Yakumo had had one, but he had had the city scourged and did not find it, only two of the vehicles of her friends. So, he assumed it had been in the area Mashuranbo had destroyed, leaving him with nothing to investigate. Technology was something his empire lacked entirely, instead striving on magic. But it was apparent magic was not enough to counter Lucifen's technology-magic mixture, he couldn't even scry it properly.

He was faced with a dilemma here. Being used to giving orders and never asking, the very idea of sitting down to do just that, asking things because he did not understand it, was ... well, degrading didn't even cover it. But this was Yakumo, it wasn't like she'd say anything to anyone. He could just order her to not care. There certainly weren't going to be any heroes barging in right now in any case.

"I need to know about robots."

Silence. Not a specific enough inquiry.

"You had a sapient robot, named Hakuba. Explain me how it worked."

"It ran on oil."

Ryuma's turn to be silent.

"You know what? Never mind."

Yakumo considered remaining silent, but she too now knew what the birds had in store. Bombs, stealth tactics, all these definitions that slipped passed Ryuma's mind because he didn't know them as threats. He would not learn quick enough to prepare for the bird's invasion...people would die because of that. She took a deep breath and made her decision. Ryuma had already stood up and was at the door.

"If he was broken, he would open the maintainance program and self analyze. Once he had found the problem, he would explain me how to fix it. I've so far fixed the exhaust, the magnetizer, the spark plug, the air supply, the piston rings and created a supporting battery. Can I have paper and pencil, please?"

Ryuma turned, looking puzzled for a moment. She waited.

"I don't have any paper." he said, silently wondering what the heck paper was. Probably some commoner thing.

**· · · · · · ·**

Unga was particularly displeased with Ryuma just wandering into her work place with his pet human in tow, who then started teaching him completely ridiculous things that she couldn't phantom the purpose of. Currently they were at her cauldron, using the scrying water to let Yakumo conjure images of cylinders and grease. Alternatively, she would show him abstract images of lines, words she couldn't read. Ryuma seemed to understand it though. Ever since the incident with the mirror, she had noticed a small change in his behavior that could best be described as simple curiosity.

What worried her more though was what she saw changing in Yakumo. As they carried on, Yakumo started to show ever so mildly a smile on her face. She was having fun and since Unga knew "fun" was not something she had been ordered to have, it meant only one thing.

"So, let's say we were to create engines using magical ice that doesn't melt or is affected by heat, yet can provide the coldness needed, we could just skip the entire cooling system."

"Such a thing is possible?"

"Off course it is, I'm the lord of ice."

"I thought you were the lord of snakes?"

"Yes, that too. Now, water can matchlessly fall into itself, I could make the most perfect engine there is. No cylinders wearing down and no damage that can't be fixed by resetting the system, it can fix itself. It'll be perfect!" Ryuma sat back looking particularly pleased with himself.

Yakumo meanwhile thought it would be perfect if any weapons would turn to water once they hit their enemy. Ryuma seemed to be fond of freezing things, so if she could plant it into his head that freezing people was a quicker way to victory than downright killing them, she'd be happy already. Ryuma's ice magic could preserve without actual death by cold if he bothered, she'd seen that plenty of times.

"But how would those machines be controlled, hm?" said Unga from her corner.

"I'm a genius so there's no need for you to worry about such fancy details." said Ryuma with a wide smirk. "Unga, I want these image in portable ice spheres, we're going to the laboratory!"

"We have a laboratory?" Ryuma never answered. Unga finished what he told her to do and then was ordered to come along. As quick as grace allowed, Ryuma marched to his "laboratory".

The laboratory in question turned out to be a large hall that as far as Unga knew had always been used to train Grandora in or when Ryuma was bored, to have gladiator style tournaments. At the moment it was empty though. A large hole was in the ceiling at the west end, where Mashuranbo had destroyed part of the castle. Several small pillars supported the roof and one massive one stood at the center, offering less support and more view through a seating chamber inside it; their current location.

"Unga, summon the craftsmen!" he ordered while snatching the small bag she carried from her hands.

He could have just told her that when they were still upstairs, but she distinctly got the feeling he was just going on whatever random idea popped into his head. As usual.

"Yes, my lord." she said and started climbing the stairs back up with much effort. As she did so, she saw Yakumo's head turn to her, looking a bit worried. "Not good, not good, not good..." Unga muttered to herself.

Ryuma in the meantime went to one of the thrones that were lined across the circular room, the one facing the largest arena. He inserted the orbs from the bag in round cavities in said throne's railing. As he did so, the images he had combined earlier appeared in a large projection floating above the arena.

"Yakumo, over here." He made her sit down and manipulated some ice to form a scrying plate before her. "You'll control the image model from up here, same way you control the images in the cauldron. I'll be down there and send you instructions about what to change." Yakumo did as told and held her hands above the orbs, while her eyes were on the images above the hall, while keeping the scrying screen in attention.

Ryuma went down into the arena and started calling water from all over the dome. It flowed in glittering streams from the walls and snaked over the low walls that separated the arena. The cold made a small crust of ice form across the streams every time, only for it to crack as larger quantities of water followed, filling the hall with a soft rustle. In the arena, Ryuma formed them into several crystal pillars. Yakumo had grown to hate the ice and the cold, but even now she had to admit is was impressive ... beyond that. It was beautiful, even if the thought they'd be creating war machines with it put a dumper on it.

So fixated on watching the ice form, she didn't notice Unga coming down again followed by some of the magicians who kept the palace in shape. Accompanying them was Yuid, who despite warnings of being put to work had come down out of sheer curiosity, wondering what next crazy idea his lord would come up with. The first thing he noticed was the human sitting on one of the thrones that should've been exclusively reserved to Ryuma. Angrily he stomped over to her, the urge to throw her off was strong. As he came alongside, she suddenly noticed him and startled. Her expression changed from amazed to frightened, then she went blank and looked ahead again.

Yuid saw her control the orbs and the images across the arena, Ryuma in the middle of it ... what were those models for? He hesitated, then decided to go ahead and talk to her, as much as he resented her very presence here.

"What is the meaning of all this?" Unga's explanations on so called engines had made little sense, and Ryuma, well, he had no intention of going down there.

"It is an engine. We are going to attempt to create engine made of water and ice, running on hydro-energy. Something complex enough to keep Lucifen's soldiers from simply disabling its magical root right away."

"What is an engine anyway?"

"An energy transformer that allows motion of inanimate objects without magic."

"But you just said ..."

"The engine's materials and mechanism will be magical, the process and effect itself is not."

Unga sent the craftsmen downstairs to meet Ryuma, but stayed watching the ensuing conversation for a little while. Yuid continued questioning Yakumo, who explained stoically. The information Unga hadn't heard before came out now, and it made a little more sense now. But she was worried about the whole idea nonetheless. Ryuma and his toys ... she noticed small things that indicated increasing failure of the crown's magic. The way she answered questions before they were spoken, the way she knew how to clarify something unclear, the hand motions she was starting to make.

"...and why can't cooling fluid be skipped right a-".

The screen before Yakumo faded on, Ryuma was halfway visible on it and not even looking in its general direction.

"Yakumo, is Unga up there? Tell her to come down now! I'm done setting the workers up, she's stalling everything!"

"Unga, Ryuma wants-"

"I'll be on my way, lord Ryuma!" she called out and started towards the door.

"Yuid? You're there, I recognize your weird breathing! Get down here as well!"

Yuid startled and stepped back from the seat, but it was too late.

"Yes my lord." he said grudgingly and followed Unga.

**· · · · · · ·**

Minutes passed. An hours passed. Following Ryuma's orders and watching was all she could do, but for the first time since she had the crown placed on her she was enjoying something. Quite simply said, the magic she was witnessing was absolutely stunning.

He was like a child with his toys, yet creating a harmonious whole that a child normally wouldn't be able to achieve. Each craftsman was thaught how to create one particular asset to the engine, instructed by Ryuma. Normally he'd never even talk to his personnel, but at the moment he didn't seem to care, so engaged he was into his new project. Yakumo knew that expression, he had it often when he spoke of his plans of conquest, self-assured and certain he would make it out on top. He'd get cranky in the face of failure, but easily moved on and forgot. The craftsmen screwing up would get a sizzle lightning at most and he sent two incompetent ones away.

It reminded her of her father's laboratory... All working together as one, it was something she'd not seen in a long time. During her travels she had met nothing but hostile Enterrans, sans the few traveling with her. She had almost started to believe they'd been exceptions, that Enterrans truly did lack certain human qualities, but that was a thought she'd fought. Now of all times, despite the situation she was in, they seemed more human than ever. She could see them laughing when Ryuma wasn't around, helping each other and ...

With a awkward sound one of the energy pipes of one of the smaller test engines popped. The engine quickly overheated as the artificial cold was broken. Within seconds, the entire magic of the machine was off balance and exploded, those working on them caught in a hail of sharp ice. Their screams pierced the hall and echoed, everyone else fell silent in that moment and turned to see. Small rivers of blood spread through grooves in the uneven floor, everyone was silent.

Ryuma left what he was doing and marched over. "What the heck just happened?"

"We ... we're not sure." mumbled one of the workers with the misfortune of standing between Ryuma and the accident. He lashed out, but they'd already crawled back.

"Yakumo, what exactly happened?"

"I don't know."

Ryuma gritted his teeth and remembered the crown. "What is according to you the most likely thing that happened?"

"An error in the density of a conduction pipe or an error in its lock on the rest of the machine. In any case, the temperature was unbalanced and the heat produced conflicted with the induced cold. Like hot water on a cold glass." she recited as he walked closer to the accident. Once there, he nudged one of the hit workers with his foot, his face twisting in disgust.

"Look at this mess." he said. "Idiots".

He raised an ice snake with his mind and swooped the wounded out of the way, then investigated the busted engine. Glowing fragments of magic tried to continue working, to little avail. Ryuma reached out and began pulling the fragments apart from another, then let them go. The magic drew water from the surrounding in an attempt to return to the model it had been forged in.

Ryuma then turned to the wounded. A small group had formed around them, some had already begun to apply first aid and pull out the shards. Ryuma walked over to them.

"Move." The group dispersed quickly. Ryuma looked at the wounded, the damage was immense. Sharp chunks of ice still stuck in the four reptiles, the magic continuing to try and pull water from the surrounding to reassemble its full form. Now it was out of radius of the original magical core, all the fragmented spell did was draw water right out of the bodies of the Enterrans the chunks were lodged in. Strangely shaped ice began to cluster around the needles, the victims shrieking in pain as they slowly dried up.

"How ...beautiful." he whispered.

Unga appeared at his side. "My lord? Perhaps you should stop this. They were good workers, it would be a hassle if you'd have to instruct new ones." she suggested, trying not to sound too concerned.

"Hm? Oh, yes, you're right." With a simple thought, he dispersed the magic at work. One was already dead, having taken most of the blow, the rest switching and gasping for breath under collapsed lung arteries. The moment Ryuma turned away, the crowd closed in again. They pulled out the ice and someone called for a doctor. Not that Ryuma cared.

"Unga, find me someone expendable, I've got a few new things I want to try out." he said, turning around with renewed energy. "You know what, call those pathetic cooks. There's been a noticeable decrease of crows at the dump. They've been eating my left-overs against my orders, they can use some punishment while we're at it."

He sent a mental message to Mashuranbo's control spell. The warrior dropped through the opening at the west seconds later and calmly walked to the central arena, where Ryuma gave him some quick orders and sent him on his way.

Yakumo could only watch at the scene that unfolded before her. What had been her brightest moment since imprisonment quickly turned into a nightmare. Ryuma had discovered the destructive potential of an engine, the ability to hurl things through the air in immense speed, something reserved for magicians beforehand. Worse yet, the water draining idea has been directly inspired by her proposition of energy conduct.

Soon, Mashuranbo herded the kitchen staff into the arena and kept them them there with a energetic barrier. By the time they had arrived, Ryuma had created a few smaller engines with deliberate flaws and started testing them to see how best to make them explode, and how much damage they could do. The victims ran around, but could do nothing as Mashuranbo singled them out one by one before Ryuma. Soon the hall was filled with endless echoing of crying and the sharp sound of exploding ice.

Occasionally, Ryuma would order her to rearrange some blueprints as he came up with new ideas, Yakumo had no choice but to oblige. Flashes of the past welled up in her mind, despite the crown trying to suppress them, as she had no order to remember. It failed however. Humans had been slaughtered in similar ways, but usually not so torturous.

Nothing, nothing she could do, she was useless. As Ryuma had put it again and again, she was a toy. But she didn't want to accept it. A tingle or rage stirred deep within her.

_I can't afford to stay a scared rabbit ... I caused this!_

So she desperately waited for an opportunity, one moment to deceive the crown while watching the death of one after another.

"Yakumo, stop the rotation of this model here, I want a different charge base and... Yakumo?" The rotation continued.

The moment she heard "stop" she stopped what she was doing. One swipe and the screen before her was off, communications cut away. The crown was not quite a sapient lifeform, but sentient enough to comprehend her primary order involved sitting and staying here. Yakumo fought her own brain in a struggle to deceive the crown, the effort straining on her synapses and producing a type of pain she'd never felt before.

Down the stairs, all became a blur. Clear thoughts fell away, but her base drive remained. She had to stop this experiment. Twice she fell while rushing down the stairs, but she struggled up quickly each time. Down, further down.

The dim blue light of the arena and the scent of blood greeted her at the bottom of the stairs, she slipped a third time on the ice and landed hard on the ground. Almost the crown managed to regain control. She pushed up again, only to come face to face with Yuid. The Dimetrodon looked surprised and angry simultaneously and reached to shove her back. He snarled something, but she couldn't understand anything anymore. In a reflex, she warded off the approaching hand, dodging underneath it.

The hall seemed even more massive from down here, and there were some hundred meters between her and where Ryuma was testing his new weapon. Fortunately for her, all the workers were faced into that direction and did not notice her till she had run well past them. The loud noises kept Ryuma from hearing the surprised cries of the bystanders as they noticed the human, he was too focused on his game. Mashuranbo however was perfectly aware of his surrounding. He turned slightly to see Yakumo approach, vaguely feeling something click again in the back of his limited awareness. Then nothing followed and he simply watched her charge forward.

But then she came close to the barrier he had raised. Driven by an unknown force inside her, Yakumo ignored the now searing pain of the crown and reached out her hands into the barrier. Under the white serpent dress, the gem on her chest started to glow. Energy surged through her body, out of it and all the way through the invisible barrier.

Ryuma initially noticed nothing but a small shift in the air, but then he saw Mashuranbo stumble in the corner of his eyes. At the same time, the remaining kitchen servants flocked away into all directions. Some were hit by the latest makeshift bomb Ryuma had thrown, the splinters no longer hindered by Mashuranbo's barrier. Then he saw Yakumo lying on the ground some thirty meters behind him, leaning on her arms.

At the same time Mashuranbo started to move towards her, drawing his sword in the process. Within a split second Ryuma found himself utterly out of control of the situation. Mashuranbo attacked, a burst of pure red energy headed straight at the human.

All of the crowd scattered now, the workers crowding towards the exit or hiding in the chambers at the sides of the arena.

"Yakumo, move!"

The crown ceased full control again and forced Yakumo to stand up and leap to the right. On instinct, the snakes of her dress emerged and shielded her from some of the energy. In vain, Ryuma tried to regain mental control of Mashuranbo, but he couldn't get through.

Not seeming in any particular hurry, Mashuranbo aimed again. His target was no longer sitting still through, running towards the exit. He leaped up and landed between her and the central pillar, she turned and again dodged out of the way of the red energy surge.

"Unga, what's going on? Why won't he obey?" shouted Ryuma.

He received no answer. Unga was on her knees, scrambling with a small cauldron she'd pulled out of her robes. In the water a small image appeared, indecipherable to Ryuma. Impatient as he was, Ryuma tried again to call back Mashuranbo, to no avail.

Enough now. Very ticked off at how this was going wrong, he called down the ice walls into one massive flood, hurling around Mashuranbo and freezing him on the spot. Almost immediately Mashuranbo started to ammass energy to break the ice wall, Ryuma reinforced the spell with a different ice structure.

Unga fumbled a little more with her cauldron, then promptly stood up. "Lord Ryuma, continue to hold him back, I will bring Yakumo out of his sight." She wasn't sure whether he even heard her. Desperately, Unga looked around to find Yakumo, only to find her at the edge of the cyclone of water. Part of the ice magic had hit her and was slowly freezing her over.

As Unga stumbled closer, she saw the doll's face was gone, Yakumo showed clear despair. Whether it was by pain or because of Mashuranbo she didn't know, and didn't care. Not hesitating for a moment, she grabbed the human and pulled her arm over her shoulder.

"We need to leave quickly." was all she said. Yakumo's hand grabbed the cloth on her shoulder, Unga thought she heard her say "please ... they ..." under rasped breath. The human's other arm was frozen stiff and her right leg was practically a clump of ice. Unga had to drag her forward with all might.

A sudden flash of deep purple blue emerged from the water whirlwind and they stared right into the eyes of the god of destruction. He raised his sword and was about to strike, but for one moment something seemed to hinder his concentration. Only now did Unga notice the glowing gem on Yakumo's chest, as it had emerged into the white serpent cloth.

That one moment of diversion was all Ryuma needed. A yellow, white and green form tackled Mashuranbo from the side, Ryuma in hyper mode. Mashuranbo initially had showed little interest in Ryuma, but now that he was standing between him and his target, the reptile lord himself became a target. Ryuma blocked the first attack with an ice gust and dodged a second, but Mashuranbo was ahead of him and used Ryuma's reliance on the ice arm to bust right through it and attack head front where a side attack was expected. With ice all around though, Ryuma still had an advantage.

Unga dragged Yakumo into the corridor of the main pillar, dropped her on the ground and pulled out her cauldron again. She held it before the human and looked her straight into the eyes. "Tell him to stop. He will hear you."

Yakumo was too confused to reply, but the crown forced her. Empty words came : "Mashuranbo, stop."

The battle outside continued unrelentingly. Unga sighed as she reached for the crown and ever so slightly released its control over her identity. The human's expression tore into complete horror and she screamed out while lunging forward, only held back by her frozen limbs. Unga backed off. No intelligeble words came from Yakumo this time, but it had the desired effect. The winds stopped, as did the clashing of swords and the invisible waves of energy.

As dead silence set in and the crown's grip was loosened, everything came crashing down on Yakumo. _Why? For goodness sake, why?_ Utterly confused, she looked up at Unga, mouthing the words without sound. Hate, dread, sorrow, despair, loathing, all these fought to find their place in her mind.

Ryuma was blissfully unaware of them though as he stormed in. In his hyper mode he was several heads taller than before and easily lifted Unga off the ground. He threw her across the hall, a few unpleasant crack sounded as she hit the ground.

"What was that?" he said sharply, trying not to scream. Bursting into rage wasn't something he considered dignified and he could keep a cool head in battle, but right now, he was sorely tempted to really take out this failure on his main court magician. This whole thing was humiliating to say the least!

"Unga, explain!"

"He ... he may have remembered things from the past. The real Mashuranbo ... "

"You're telling me your spells are _failing_?" Ryuma manifested an ice needle in his hand and approached Unga. "Well?"

Unga pushed herself up till she was on her knees and kept her head bowed. "Yes, my lord, this my failure." she said as humble as possible. Ryuma hoved the ice needle before her eyes, considering for a moment to make her know her failure, but then changed his mind. The needle fell to water and he changed back into his regular child-like form.

"Alright. Then we're going to work on keeping it from happening again." He pulled Unga up and signed her to follow him, back into the arena where Mashuranbo was waiting, still as a statue. As he turned, his eyes fell on Yakumo, who was sitting on the floor trembling like the weakling she was. Obviously, something had happened to make Mashuranbo remember. It had started with the barrier vaporizing ... it wasn't the sight of Yakumo, he'd seen her plenty of times before without anything happening. No, something else...

Then his eyes fell on the drop-like black stone on her chest. It had been part of her clothes before, but the serpent dress had covered it before. Now it had become part of said serpent dress. He mentally kicked himself, that was probably some sort of key stone right there and he had missed it. It probably also meant it wasn't actually Unga's fault, not that he'd ever say that out loud.

He caught a sound on the stairs, a very familiar sound. Steps coming down and breathing.

"Yuid?" The steps stopped. "You're still there. Come down!"

Hesitantly, the Dimetrodon came down the stairs. There was a strange black mark on his arm, Ryuma remembered he'd sent him to look what Yakumo had been up to...had she done that? Oh well, Yuid was expendable. If Yakumo did do something like spontaneously exploding, he could miss this minister.

"Yuid, bring Yakumo to her room."

Shock appeared on the minister's face.

"What? You can touch her, it's not like she's going to infect you with humanity." he said mockingly. Yuid was about to raise his arm and say something, presumably about said mark, but Ryuma handwaved him.

"Unga and I are going to ensure now Mashuranbo stays under our control, we can't have her around." He and Unga then stepped back into the arena. "Oh, and make sure it's her room, understand? Not mine."

**· · · · · · ·**

"Don't faint now!"

"Why me?"

"Can someone open that door? Someone? Please?"

**· · · · · · ·**

The closer Yakumo came to fully being awake, the more prominent the pain in her right arm and leg became. Her thoughts started to orden themselves gradually, she remembered the ice, the horrible way the reptiles were dying, Mashuranbo trying to kill her ... she wanted to cry, but it didn't come.

Speaking of Ryuma, there was someone here, right?

She turned her head and saw him sitting there in a chair, eyes closed but he looked up as he heard her move. Right now she hated him and she hated herself for not having taken the sword that first day ... should have taken the sword, should have taken the sword, that was a persistent call in the corners of what remained of her free mind.

"Do you know how you did that?" he asked after a while.

"No." she simply said. It was the truth. She hadn't known anything but the feeling that she could do something, but where it came from?

"Unga will come here soon, follow her instructions. You stay still and rest."

"Coming ... what for?"

He frowned. "Answer, can you defy my command?"

Her lips remained sealed, but she flinched as the crown punished her for her specific disobedience.

A smirk curled on Ryuma's face. "Heh. Maybe it will be more interesting this way, but I can't afford to let you out yet. Not until both you and Mashuranbo are truly subservient."

He closed his eyes again, seemingly resting till Unga entered the room. She was carrying an array of stuff that she started spreading on the bed. Yakumo noticed the old one seemed at the edge of exhaustion and tried to get up to help her, but pain shot through her body and she couldn't get up.

After Unga had arranged her things, two servants came in on her call. They went to either side of Yakumo and gently pulled her up. Pain came again, mingled with embarrassment as she noticed her clothes were gone. She cast a worried glance in Ryuma's direction, but he still had his eyes closed.

"Where does it hurt?" asked Unga.

"My back and my leg ... on the right side. I can't feel my hand and foot though, ...

"That's really bad." said Unga dryly.

The two servants started applying some type of goo from the bottles Unga had brought onto her back, it spread a warm feeling across her skin, but indeed, her right hand and lower leg remained without sensation. Unga threw together some more things, obviously magical and pulled Yakumo's foot closer, ready to apply it.

"She's got nervous damage." said Ryuma suddenly.

"My lord?"

"Nerves and tissue damage. Her nerves need to thaw out."

Nerves? Probably something he had learned from the bird Wired. Science was human territory and Unga was as good as alien to it. "Off course, my lord."

"Is that stuff working?"

Unga hesitated and looked at the blackening human leg. "I don't think so, my lord." Unga slightly cringed as her lord stood up, fearing further punishment, but Ryuma didn't mind her. Yakumo instinctively pulled up the blanket wrapped around her the moment he got up. With one knee on the edge of the bed he signed the servants to turn her with her back to him, then held out a hand to Unga.

"I assume you still carry some of my parent's spell cards? Give me a life card."

"Such a useless thing?"

"Unga..."

She handled him one after a bit of searching and Ryuma held out the card between him and Yakumo's heart chakra. The card floated in the air on its own and Ryuma placed his hand above it. He had never done this on another living being, but quite frequently on himself : restoring dead cells to life ... several steps beyond frosted preservation, not stasis but reactivation. It was a base requirement for an ice elemental, lest you freeze yourself to death by accident. Off course, he hadn't been familiar in the past with words like cells and nervous systems, but the principles were the same regardless. If anything, he now knew what part to give priority.

"This is going to hurt like hell, so keep her steady."

Oh, and it did. At the last moment Unga pushed a rolled up piece of cloth in Yakumo's mouth to keep her from biting her tongue off. As cells and blood vessels expanded and crystallized tissue loosened gradually, pain like cold fire went throughout every fiber of her flesh. The freezing before had been terrible, but the sensation of nearly dead flesh forced back into life was even worse. Yakumo kicked with her still mobile leg, but the servants were stronger than her and held her restrained.

Now the tears finally came.

"Oh great, the moment you get a little more control, you just have to start shaking again, don't you? Hold still." said Ryuma sarcastically, as he tried to hide his irritation with not being able to do this as quick as with himself.

Slowly the pain subsided, though it left behind a sore feeling for a long time. Behind her, Yakumo heard Ryuma take a deep breath. She now noticed he was tired too, but likely too proud to show it. He slumped back into the chair.

"Well, that's that. Would've been a shame if my queen would end up with black limbs." He ordered the servants to leave. Unga stored the card again and took out a small towel, scraping over Yakumo's arm first and then her back, a little surprised at finding healed flesh under the dead top skin. She had no idea life cards could be used for this type of magic, just what exactly had he learned from that bird "wired"?

Unga took her time to finish and Yakumo took her time to cry, but she grew quiet before it was all out. It felt like she'd choke otherwise.

"So ... why did you do that?" Ryuma eventually asked.

Yakumo looked over her shoulder. She had no guess at what that question was supposed to mean, some sort of mockery like before, or did he really want to know? Regardless, the crown had her answer.

"It's just ...how I am ..." Then she quickly added : "Please don't punish them anymore. I gave them the food."

"Hm?"

"You never said I couldn't go to the kitchen and throw the leftovers on the ground. They did nothing wrong, please leave them alone now."

Ryuma chuckled for a moment. "If it hadn't been them, it would've been somebody else. It doesn't matter, I got my results. But it's true it was the reason they were chosen. You better keep that in mind next time you take liberties."

Yakumo looked down at the sheets and the many little pots Unga was now gathering back up.

"Can I ask you a question too?"

Ryuma seemed to consider it for a moment, then said :"No, you may not. Now, shut up."

_How can you have such a power, the power to restore life, yet take such joy in destroying it?_

_**· · · · · · ·**_


	4. Got Reserves

**· · · · · · ·**

Why did they try to kill her? She'd heard it said by many, that she was a devil, a curse for the Enterran race, and that she'd somehow enslaved Mashuranbo, their god of destruction.

If there were legends about Mashuranbo, then he must have existed before her friends did. At first she had thought it was just a way of Ryuma screwing with her mind, but she had heard servants whisper and speak of him like that repeatedly since then.

The crown still tried to suppress memories, but she could fight it now ... one day, long ago, she had asked Mashura, Sago and Kutal about their past, since she remembered only blurs from her own.

Mashura had always been on the move, claiming he didn't remember nor care where he came from. Sago had lost most of his relatives in a raid aimed to wipe out all traces of humanity, they were targeted for their human appearance. Yakumo suspected Mashura might have had similar experiences. Both had spent their time wandering about and cheating their way through life till they met her. Kutal was the only one who had had a family, quite an expansive one in fact. None of them could have spawned such legends on their own.

Now she thought of it, it was rather curious they would all take on wandering and end up as far as the Arthropoda domain. It was also rather curious that these three merging together created Mashuranbo ...

How would the kittens and Hakuba be doing?

"Who allowed you to decorate?"

Yakumo startled as Ryuma barged into her dreamscape, pushing his way through the memories that were floating around. Well, attempting to. The crown, confused as it was by Yakumo's new resistence, could not tell the difference between him and memories and tried to restrain him.

Yakumo was sorely tempted to let him struggle there against the moss green spikes and snakes that held him back. But eventually, no. She sighed and got up from her little safe spot and walked through a few memories, first climbing down the statue of liberty and then through a desert and jungle till she reached him. Using power through her hands, she gentle pushed aside the defense system. It did hurt, but that was nothing she needed to show. The last thing she wanted now was Ryuma mocking her again for her weakness.

Her effort was too easy in Ryuma's eyes, but before he could decide whether he should do something about it, she was making her way back again. The memories had shifted at this point and the landscape she passed through was a foggy marsh now.

"Stop!"

She kept walking, or rather, climbing the ledge she was currently at. Ryuma took a leap and landed above her. Momentarily fear swept over her at his obvious anger and she almost fell, but then anger of her own claimed attention and she gripped the rocks. This was her dreamscape, it would be pathetic if she'd not get around her.

"Is there something you want?" Yakumo said almost nonchalantly as she climbed atop the rock wall.

"What, now I need a reason to come here? It's my domain, I go where I want to be, your mind included."

A memory appeared behind Ryuma, the memory of the time Yakumo slapped Mashura and sent him away for having killed again. "How foolish, how stupid I was." she whispered bitterly and clenched her fist, not following her impulse. Ryuma followed her eyes and turned, but the memory faded away again.

Yakumo returned to her little sanctuary and sat down, waiting. Ryuma did want something, he'd tell her eventually.

It didn't take him long to join her. Sceptically he investigated the floating island, consisting of excessively sparkly ice crystals. Strange translucent flowers grew from ridges in them, soft yet unbreakable. Whether she was aware of it or not, Ryuma noticed how it countered his tendency to carry around roses and freeze them to death at some point. These flowers lived on ice and he could not break them.

Yakumo ignored him, sealing herself off at the slightest mental probe. He didn't bother too hard today, he already knew Yakumo's mind was quite devoid of deep secrets. After all, she'd been something like seven, eight when placed in cryogenic sleep. Hence she was simple, naive and obnoxious.

He feigned interest in her little creation and surrounding memories for a while, quietly messed with a memory of Daku, ridiculing him with a few odd strokes of color and when coming past those of Gyasa making a quick mental note he still needed to retrieve Gyasa's core and have a word with him about trying to kill Yakumo when he'd been given specific orders to keep the human alive.

"How ... do you get people to people to follow you and do things for you without any power?"

Yakumo turned to him, seemingly breaking from a memory that faded quickly. "Eh?"

"You had freaking Mashuranbo at your service, and I can only control him through concentrated power and very orders. You, you he served in perfect grace." He didn't face her, yet somehow he felt her eyes on him all around.

Yakumo suddenly smiled at the realization Ryuma was perhaps jealous at her. The cold increased around her but she did nothing to suppress this grain of amusement. "Because it is Mashura and Sago and Kutal, not the god of destruction. You should ask Mashura how he controls that body, because all I know is that my friends want to protect me."

In the moment of Ryuma's annoyed silence Yakumo found a bit of drifting knowledge. Another seal ... ?

"Are you sure of that?" Ryuma said matter-of-factly. "That they _want_ to protect you?"

Outside the circle of crystals memories of the collision in the stadium appeared, of Mashuranbo as he tried to kill Yakumo. Ryuma's own memories mixed into the scape, showing his point of view. Between blurs of ice Yakumo could see Mashuranbo's face, expressionless as ever it was these days. Except for one moment, where he almost saw a chance to dash after her and Unga into the hall : the same expression as in the dream Ryuma had sent her before. Mad joy.

"Someone in there hates you and you will hate them soon too." said Ryuma, becoming eager as he caught glimpse of a potentially interesting mind game. Unga had warned him not to tell Yakumo too much of Mashuranbo, but she had apparently caught onto something anyway. It didn't matter.

"Have fun figuring out what to do with him now if you don't even know how you brainwashed him. Just in case you were pondering on how to mess with my spells."

With that, he blinked out of her dream. Yakumo didn't know what to start with the new information at first. She had hoped Mashuranbo's desire to see her death had to do with some type of magic, but for all she could tell now, it was not necessarily so.

She didn't want to see anymore of the fight and was about to submerge the images Ryuma had given her when she noticed something. Her memory was unclear of the event, but Ryuma's was painfully aware of every detail around him. Unga ... Unga had worked her out of sight of Mashuranbo, claiming that would ease the situation, but ... too late, Ryuma had already seen it. Yakumo called forth that particular sight of herself. In reflex her arms wrapped around her at the sight of her frozen limbs and the memory of the pain, but she looked closely at the image nonetheless.

On her chest, the gemstone her father had given her before she could remember was glowing in yellow and pink, something it never ever had done before.

Her eyes grew wide. She had been given that by her father, it was supposed to be a simple magical tool to keep her clothes in shape, a remnant of pre-war magicology. Ryuma's associated thoughts in the memory mirrored her own : how was that thing related? Unga had done something shortly after, something she had tried to hide from Ryuma.

She gasped softly. That's why he had come to ask her and ... was that related to why she could ... Her earlier thoughts returned to her. It was too coincidental the three Enterrans who contained who ever Mashuranbo was to find her, befriend her, protect her. Whatever was going on, ...

... her father had not told her everything.

-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-C-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_

This may have been the worst place to fall asleep from the cold.

Perplexed stood the lone lizard on the slope of the mountain, gazing up at the flanks above him. The sun had not yet risen, but the early light reflected on a field of rich colors enough for him to see that something was very wrong. An army gathered in perfect silence high upon the mountain, hunched but not hidden as they waited. Seated before them, right above on a stone plateau stood what something ugly as a human with the same useless face, but the wings portruding from her back betrayed her heritage.

Coldly, calmly her eyes bore down at him.

"Won't you run now?" she asked casually, as if inquiring about the weather.

The lizard, caught off guard by the utter lack of death threats and attacks, took a few moments to process the situation, then adrenaline kicked in and on all fours he raced down the mountain. Lucifen smiled emptily. Maybe more would escape if this lone gatherer warned the villages, more mouths to spread tales of fear. Just the tiny first step in a maze of fear she hoped to spread.

Dawn slowly painted the horizon in inappropriately gentle array of colors and by the time the lizard had reached the foot of the mountains, sunlight shed on the rainforest below. Several smoke trail clusters rose from the green, betraying the presence of a tightly knit community that spun across many miles.

Once the sun was a little higher, she lifted a hand. At her gesture, the troops behind her burst into a cry of war, strengthened in echo by the mountains behind them. The guards of the nearest village almost immediately cried alert.

Soon after alert signals from all villages were detected. Perfect. The visit had been announced. Lucifen leaped into the air and changed to hypermode, crying sharply, her army in tow.

The long moment before the battle came to an end, traded for a thousand seconds of murder. Like arrows the bird army dove into the dense jungle, the smaller ones armed with lasers first. Sharp, precise kills were the order, to ensure not to start a fire.

The first village they reached was nearly empty, meaning the little fool on the mountains had warned them. They'd be hiding in the jungle now, she let them be. It wouldn't matter if they'd band together later, as long as they'd be afraid. Their weapons were futile to the advanced birds after all.

She received reports of several other villages, scattered by her troops and all successfully taken over, no effort at all. Minor casualties ... Lucifen calmly collected the information in her mind, fitting it into her strategy and finding things went smoothly so far. As she passed several of the little villages she saw its inhabitants and their weak defenses, it was the same as all the war she had led before. Against her own people, against other domains, against humans, they all acted the same. The weak ran, the stupid fought. Nobody won.

Today's target was a city hidden in between the rocks of a plateau not so far (in air miles) from the mountains, safe from the weather. It would be their primary base of operation. It was not the most perfect defense from the ground forces of the reptiles, but it was easy to navigate from the air and most importantly, it provided good shelter from the storms Ryuma would predictably try unleashing on them. Storms that could take the primary advantage of the birds away and severely hinder their technology.

Said plateau was soon in sight. Lucifen expected some sort of outer defense mechanism, as this city was for the reptiles a megalopolis. Therefore, she did not lead the attack and stayed far above the yet quiet plateau, ready to redirect her troops the moment something unexpected happened. Her first swarm descended and as expected, a primitive defense was set into motion. The residents _were _prepared for aerial attack, but only that of pterodactyl and dragon Enterrans, not massive swarms of tiny birds. Their clumsy rocks catapults were easily avoided.

"Eok formation, take the primary entrance, north-north-west!" she commanded, then briefly paused on whether it was worth to order the rock catapults destroyed. Extra weaponry was never a bad thing, and they were not massive hindrance.

The Eok flock dove into the gate and was inihilated within seconds.

The cries of the dying rose and quit so suddenly that all generals who'd been listening fell quiet, with only a distant static buzz remaining. Lucifen too was utterly caught off guard. The regular soldiers quickly noticed something had gone wrong as well, the ceasing of rapid of orders was unsettling.

What on the world was in there that could wipe out a flock of birds so rapidly? The ridiculous though crossed Lucifen's mind that perhaps rocks had been dropped on them from above, lots and lots of rocks. But that made no sense, there was no dust from the cave, nor would they'd have a reason to prepare a cave collapse for a surprise attack from the avian domain.

Moments like this were the times Lucifen hated most. Those hideous moments when something completely unexpected came up and ruined her plans. Again.

No more time. From the center of the cave a ray of light came, a trail of something launched into their midst. This something explodes into a surge of energy, scattering those that it did not kill into disarray. Before regrouping was even possible, a swarm of pterodactyls emerged from the plateau, carried by unnatural winds. Their riders systematically started propelling smaller variants of the earlier bomb into the midst of the groups, killing and scattering them farther.

Lucifen was caught in three waves before she could stabilize herself in mid-air, quickly she analyzed the situation. New, unknown weapon. The range of the large canon was either deep inside the plateau for safety, meaning it was vulnerable, or it was close to the perimeter and took a long time loading. Otherwise, they would have fired a second time, instead of relying on new aerial soldiers.

Her thoughts raced over the new information, while her body started skewering any foolish rider that came close to her. Right now, she was upset, and her killings were not as neatly as they usually were.

Where were her generals? Amidst the chaos, she heard less and less of their voices across the receptor, and she could not see them.

"Gabriel! Uzziel! Tabris!" The last voices she had heard. Gabriel and Tabris responded ... Uzziel did not. Something was very wrong here, what was silencing them when all arround her were only easily dispatched reptiles?

A way out. She took the risk and filled the air around her with a sonic tremor. It cost her her head set and thereby the ability to communicate with the remainder of her troops, but she needed to have a moment with bombs or troops.

Disoriented riders and her own troops alike started falling from the sky till far around her, and she finally got a clear sight. The bombs had cost her nearly her entire legion at this point, but that should not be anything her generals could not survive ...

"How mean of you." For Lucifen the voice was familiar, but unexpected. Deep inside her mind, she threw a fit not having considered this option, but her real world self remained collected as she turned around.

The yellow, scaled reptile warrior in the air before her grinned haughtily. "Your own troops were-"

"Maybe a long time ago. My current troops have been trained to grow resistance to my attacks." she remarked coolly. "And no, I'm not going to say how they're expendable, in case you're waiting for that, Gyasa."

"Hm." He seemed displeased. "You know who I am."

"I did my research."

"But not enough."

"Enough as far as my sources allowed." A hint of irritation shone through. "You took my generals out, I suppose."

"Off course."

A beauty of the cold blooded reptiles was that they also had human in them. Their pulse accelerated, their heat rose when they lied. So there were others. Her unknown enemy had a canon, magical bombs and revived Gyasa, along with an undetermined amount of other powerful warriors. That was enough information for today.

Gyasa folded his wings around him, forming the disc she'd seen before.

Lucifen smiled almost sweetly. She wasn't even going to try to fight him", not now she'd been weakened by those darn bombs, not now she had no plan. The circle of chaos around them grew closer, and Lucifen returned to her regular form while locking Gyasa with her temporal powers. His mid-air spin was broken and confused he drew his wings open, only to see Lucifen softly blow a single feather away from herself.

The feather broke space before her, and the energy field holding him was unrelenting as it pulled Gyasa back in time. "You witch! What are you doing?"

"Hm" He wasn't worthy of a reply. The riders around her that caught sight of the event, not knowing what it meant, immediately draw back, fearful at the apparent ease with which the bird queen had dealt with their strongest warrior.

The remaining bird warriors waited for further orders. Gabriel and Tabris approached their queen, urge on their face. Before they could speak, she said :"I threw him a few hours into the future. Gather up our fallen soldiers, and I want information on who aided Gyasa. I reckon they will retreat now they noticed I can make them 'disappear'. Stear clear of the plateau and be quick, before they decide to use their primary canon again."

"My queen, we are retreating?" said Gabriel, almost as if objecting.

"Apparently we are."

-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-C-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_

"It's not from Enterra. In fact, no magical atmosphere I know of acknowledges it."

Ryuma blinked. "Come again?"

"It's not part of the the regular universe."

"...indeed."

"Very much, my lord. Now, if you'd please take it over?"

"So it's not from our universe... how interesting."

"Not as far as I can tell." said Unga, plucking curly snakes off her arms and face, only to have them reattach themselves.

"It might be an idea to instruct the snakes to shield Yakumo from any attack, your own included. Lest you say otherwise off course."

"Are you implying I have no control over my own power?"

"Off course not! I would never-"

After Yuid had delivered Yakumo to her room Unga had taken the strange gem from her, only to find the silver snakes wouldn't detach from it. So she'd just taken the whole bunch along, they'd only get in the way of treating Yakumo later anyway. They had proceeded to try and become a dress on any object in her room, resulting in most unfortunate accidents. Once she returned from treating Yakumo, the snakes were crushing her cauldron and Ryuma was sitting in the corner, not so eloquently making her attentive of how he disagreed with her trying to hide this affair.

Fortunately for her, he seemed in a better mood after he had visited Yakumo's dreamscape, though no wiser than before it seemed. For his part, Ryuma had no intent on admitting to anyone he'd simply walked into Yakumo's room to take a look at that gem and upon seeing Unga had taken it, he had sat down to rest for a moment, feeling more exhausted than irritated. The battle with Mashuranbo had taken more energy than he cared to show, but he couldn't keep from involuntary hibernation. Therefore, he retconned the situation to overseeing Yakumo's restoration process.

Off course the entire castle was now buzzing with rumors about Ryuma's presumed voyeuristic tendencies. Days like this would have made Ryuma prone to saying "I am surrounded by idiots", idiots who were unable to grasp he _married_ the girl so he did not need excuses to see her naked if he wanted to. However, whenever feeling compelled to actually _say_ it, the information of the Bird Wired would hurl bad fiction at him. Cliche it was called.

Ryuma caught his own thoughts drifting away in the wrong directions. Unga was currently being assaulted by the silver snakes, who tried to become a dress on her.

"Unga, for arts sake, quit it, you look ridiculous in that." he said, putting up airs. "Return it to Yakumo."

"Wgggraaad ugh?" was all she could pronounce while trying to pull a snake off her face.

Ryuma grew more annoyed. He could do without the mental image of Unga in Yakumo's dress. He was about to get up and shove the struggling sorceress out of the throne room, when one of his servants approached him and announced a messenger.

"Let'em in."

An utterly exhausted small dragon rushed in, collapsed as he bowed and began to stammer : "My lord, our domain ... the bird have ... they've invaded the west ... border."

If Ryuma was annoyed before, then he was on the brink of errupting now. As usual, this translated into him sitting on his throne and glaring at the immediate air before him. The air was very unfortunate not to be able to express it's discomfort.

"They're too soon." he eventually muttered. Then he jumped up and paced to the nearest clear wall, ignoring the messenger now. His mind practically assaulted the astral streams as he forcefully conjured images of the west, scrying for any discord. The war zone was easily found.

The rainforest was mostly untouched, the villages amidst of it were empty, its residents fled or died. No sign of the birds.

Farther, farther. The megalopolis. The air was filthy around it and the rocks and rainforest damaged by what appeared large waves of plasma and sonic tremors. The surrounding rainforest was littered with bodies of reptiles. Curiously, there were no birds, though bloody feathers were all over the place.

Had they won, and buried their dead already? Dangit, that messenger must have been slow, this had to have taken place quite some time ago in that case. He scryed into the city ... it's population was alive, anxious and _reptilian_. There were no birds to be seen anywhere.

What the heck was going on here?

He tuned into many individuals and from their chattering he concluded something quite upsetting. The birds had come, and apparently had swooped across the lands and wiped out villages, but did not burn them nor bother with those escaped. Apparently Lucifen had intended to use them for back-up resources once she'd taken over the city. But, she hadn't taken over the city.

Then he saw the it. That wasn't there last time he had looked at this city. Buried deep within the ground, it's opening the only visible thing from the surroundings, was a gigantic weapon. He could not see what it was loaded with, and quite frankly, was not interested in it as much as he was interesting in _who_ had put it there. Aimlessly he kept scrying across the city, but nothing suspicious caught his eye. All leads were dead.

The cannon alone could not have scared off the bird armies, he knew what they were capable of now and it only faced one direction. There had to be more, but he did not know how to look for said more.

Cracks appeared in the wall as Ryuma subconsciously loaded his anger into his magic. When the wall suddenly broke into pieces, it was as if he woke from sort of reverie. He remained standing in between the splinters for a while, then slumped down. His knees crossed and a nervous little laugh sounded; for a moment he didn't care for his dignity.

Lucifen had such powerful armies and apparently a way to make it to the west mountains without being detected, swiftly and stealthily ... yet there was something under his very nose strong enough to drive them off and hadn't known it and in fact, still didn't know it.

Some deep, unwanted part of him was frightened. So many big things around him plotting things without his knowledge... the world really hadn't changed that much.

But then his pride got the better of him again. He stood back up, pretending nothing happened and walked off.

"Unga, seriously. Stop playing with those snakes and go get Mashuranbo. We're heading out!"

-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-C-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_

**Author Notes** :

_Rapid Dominance_ : Also known as "shock and awe", a particular type of psychological warfare that relies on speed, planning and intimidation, intended to overwhelm the enemy with such effect and display of power that their will to fight back properly is impaired.

_Arthropoda_ : Phylum of the "segment feet", which includes insects, spiders, trilobites and myriapedes. Since Daku's domain also includes spiders alongside insects, I use this way to refers to the domain.


	5. Shark Jumping

**· · · · · · ·**

The chambers of ice were strangely deserted without Ryuma about to order people around. A tensed silence had fallen. On one side, Ryuma would not be coming up with homicidal whims and Mashuranbo was gone. But the court was alone in the castle now without defense, and the devilish human was still walking around. While some had taken note the few signs of free will she had showed were kindness, nobody really trusted her not to explode in some huge, destructive devil. The kindness could be a trick.

Ryuma had dragged along his ministers as well, who were none too happy about sharing sky with Mashuranbo. For Yakumo, this meant she spent her entire time in Unga's company. The old one did not like to leave her out of sight and so had her walk around and made sure to be very specific about her orders so that Yakumo couldn't find a way out of it. The snakes and the gem had been returned to her, but the snakes unfortunately were too stupid to keep her anywhere. As unnerving as it was to have the human watching as she worked, it was better than having to run around the castle trying to locate said human on whatever charity mission she decided to go on. Hence, Unga let her do small jobs around her witch chamber. Nothing that'd damage her off course, otherwise Ryuma would likely complain later, though she discovered papercuts a little too late.

Hours passed, which soon grew past the end of the day. Unga eventually let Yakumo sleep on a bench nearby, too anxious herself to get some rest. As long as the cold didn't get to her, she could go for a few days on her herbs.

What little interaction she had with the court spelled little good. In fact, it unnerved her. Some of the workers that came from Zoar Town whispered the birds just wanted the humans and would leave if she was handed over. Unga ignored them, what did they know?

... something. They knew something. By the end of the second day of Ryuma's absence, it was clear that rumor of the invasion had already reached the city below. Considering their lack of any advanced technology, it could not be rumors from the attacked area's refugees, not yet. No, the knowledge came from the castle, and it worried her what else might have slipped through.

For a moment she tried to scry for how the information had slipped, but the buzz of many words was a maze she didn't have the concentration to sift through. She rubbed her temples and leaned tiredly against the cauldron.

A soft touch on her shoulder startled her. She shifted as quick as she could to see behind her. Yakumo stood there, her hand still hovering where Unga's shoulder had been. Unga thought to see something like concern in Yakumo's eyes and the girl's lips were slightly parted, though no words came.

"I'll be fine." she grumbled. So much for the devil that would enslave the Enterrans. "Really, I'm the last you should worry about. I am the one who enslaved you, you know?"

"I know." she whispered. "But still-"

"Quiet!" said Unga. With that, she turned away from the cauldron and sat down on a chair. "Just be quiet, little fool."

She realized the problem with that order way too late. _Just_. As in, her only order at this moment was to be quiet. And the best way to be perfectly quiet was to leave. Yakumo was out of the room for who knew how long.

"So much for giving me rest." Unga muttered as she stood up and went into the halls. The scent of human was easy to track, luckily. Her old legs didn't carry fast, so the human had quite a head start. At first she wasn't too concerned. Yakumo would probably be bother-helping servants again or something.

The scent was too strong, yet there was no human yet.

She sniffed deeper, then looked down. It took a moment to focus, then she saw it. Against the crystalline floor stood out a thin line of bright red, smeared across the smooth ice. Her nose was perhaps slow, but her mind sharp. The human bled and someone had followed her.

As quick as she could she hurried along the trail, leading down a stairs into a darker area of the castle. These were the cellars leading to the area where the few foot soldiers of the castle remained, she was likely being herded here by someone who knew humans had trouble seeing in the dark. The scent of blood grew stronger. Unga iddly wondered whether she'd been out of it longer than she thought or whether the human could really run that fast, for she still heard nothing. No steps, nothing. Just that thin wire of blood.

-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-C-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_

Whatever cry she might have had was suppressed by the control of the crown. The lizard that pursued her was quick, silent and moved across the walls when needed. They'd been waiting to catch her alone. The silver serpents of her dress had protected her from the first attack. The ice shard the lizard broke off the walls had passed the silver snakes without effort however.

Deeper into the dark area she went, she ran practically on instinct while her mind assaulted the crown. She needed control _now_. The crown, dumb and blind as it was, only knew how to restrain her, not how to help her. So when she realized the darkened ice meant she had reached the area of the castle beneath the rock, technically outside of the magical zone itself, it struck her with the pain of disobedience. She fell down.

The silhouette of the lizard appeared on the ceiling above her, it's features indistinguishable with what little of the glowing magic ice was down here. Wearily watching her it hovered there, the grip of its fingers slowly slipping on the thin ice. Then it dropped down, barely a meter away from her. The snakes threatened but the lizard remained still, watching the human as she clutched her head in pain. Then it stepped past her, away for a few meters, and took out several ice shards.

Yakumo resisted the crown with all her might as it tried to force her to walk back up into the castle, which would mean walking right towards the assassin. She could heard the sharp edge of ice, a small woosh, and then a different kind of pain.

The lizard had figured out pretty quick the snakes only responded to alien objects, so using the ice of the castle itself was an easy way around. He readied a third shard, but at that point Yakumo stood up. Unable to handle both the pain caused by the crown and the cut in her back, her body moved on its own and she walked down the hall. The lizard backed off, it's mouth opening wide without sound. Perhaps a threat, flashed through her mind. Was it afraid?

"_Please be afraid, please leave_." she thought. The silver snakes that surrounded her started to focus, dumb too but not too dumb to start to recognize the threat this stranger posed. They readied themselves. The lizard backed off some more and tried to throw its third shard, but not quick enough. The serpents shot forward and bit down mercilessly.

"No!" she wanted to cry, but no words came.

Too much blood.

"No."

_What if she had taken the sword when Ryuma tempted her? How many would still live if she had?_

"... no more." Still no sound, but she wanted to scream. Not for fear, but for anger. She saw the silver snakes wrap around her attacker and moving in for the kill, preparing to rip out the creature's core.

"Enough..." she whispered.

The gemstone on her chest glowed gently and she started to feel life in the silver snakes. A split second as new sensation was bombarded onto her mind, it only added to the craze in her head. But inbetween all that, she managed to make one thing clear : _stop killing_.

The snake had its teeth sunken into the Enterrans chest, already tapping into the energy meridians that kept its body together, not a second too late she halted it. She couldn't tell whether it was her will that had the snakes throw the attacker away, or the snakes itself.

The crown gave her no moment of rest and wanted her to continue back up again, but Yakumo's anger was in no way subsided. Her hands reached for her head again in a frantic attempt to tear the crown off.

"Don't you want it to end?" It's voice sounded strangely gentle. It had created a distance between them and its hands clutched another ice sharp, but now it was even more cautious than before.

"Just hold still and I'll end it." It sounded almost confused. "You want to die, right? That's why..."

_Did she?_

"Yakumo! Answer!" The echo of Unga's rough voice was like a sudden relief. "Here!" she cried out.

This seemed to confuse her assassin even more, but it quickly made up its mind and readied to attack again.

"Go." whispered Yakumo. "Please go. They'll destroy your core."

"... No. You must die, for the sake of all who live in these lands."

The silver snakes responded to those words, preparing again. Yakumo realized that if she was linked to them, then they knew what she knew too. "Go now." she whispered hoarsely.

Unga's footsteps grew louder.

The lizard turned to look in her direction, then wearily back at Yakumo. Unga called out again. Yakumo's voice, now clear for obeying the crown, again answered :"Here!".

In the dim light Unga's hunched shape appeared, her eyes growing wide when she saw the bloody scene before her. "Who are you?" she snapped at the intruder.

The lizard didn't care to answer, but keeping a suspecting eye on her.

"Yakumo, come over here." The human stood up obediently.

The lizard's expression changed slightly, its face hardening as it settled it's gaze on Unga. "Now I get it."

Silently it launched itself right at Unga, ready to ram an ice shard through her skull. Unga in a reflex raised her arm, barely avoiding death. Her arm was pierced instead and she fell back hard against the walls, the lizard in the same motion pulled free the shard and tried to strike again.

It didn't count on a second attack of the snakes. Some bit, some merely wrapped around his limbs, but all kept him from attacking Unga. A moment of futile resistance later, the assassin was thrown a second time. Yakumo rushed to Unga's side and knelt down to see the wound. When seeing it was nothing life threatening, she looked up at the assassin.

"Please leave now." Unga didn't give her a chance to say much more. She placed her hand on the crown and forced control back on Yakumo's mind. As this happened, the silver snakes dulled back into the white dress.

Unga kept her hand on Yakumo's forehead and faced the assassin.

"I don't think you want to try something again. Now, who are you?"

It hesitated, then answered in it's strange soft voice :"I am an emissary of the river, sent to kill the human that distracts the lord of the reptiles from his duty."

Unga couldn't help but snort. "Idiot. Lucifen has a barrier that restricts his view. Now, what the heck is this 'river' you're supposedly from?"

The lizard smiled, again forsaking a reply. It just turned and fled. Unga tried to order the snakes to attack, but to no avail. She found Yakumo's mind also raising a barrier. Before she could do anything about it, the assassin was gone.

"You stupid idiot!" Unga grunted. Taking Yakumo at the arm, she pulled her up. "You want to spare its life? Why do you think we have these lower quarters? Why do you think it's dark here?"

She began to drag Yakumo in the direction the assassin went. The path became increasingly rougher and then dim light appeared at the end of the tunnel. A blue rock hall with a thin stripe of light far above, and beneath was a narrow valley, where the trail of the assassin led. The stood at a ridge above a steep slope, down which Unga pointed.

"This is what you get with mercy!"

Down there was a mass of malformed Enterrans, wounded, scarred and acting like mad beasts. They looked like mish-mashes of nature, hardly like the Enterrans she was used to seeing. Fences and spikes barred them from leaving, but some had prehensile limbs or tongues ... The assassin had chosen a particularly unfortunate escape route.

Yakumo was not certain what to be horrified by more. The lizard as he was being torn apart by the savage mass, or the state of said savage mass.

"This is the cruelty of mercy." said Unga. "Isn't it familiar?" As she let go of Yakumo, the girl sank to her knees, her eyes latched to the scene below them.

"These are the foot folk of Ryuma's parents : Enterrans who are the result of failed experiments. Unhindered by conscience or traditions, this is what we all are like raw. Does it look familiar, Yakumo? Answer it!"

"Yes." Tears welled up in her eyes, she didn't want to watch anymore but could not stop, nor could she stop the words she dreaded to speak. "Everyone who knows I am human tries to kill me. Everyone I forgive dies or turns against me. Is it in vain ... ?"

"This is the way the world works. We're all savages. Some pretend to be better, some don't. In the raw world, you would die. Your little spot of mercy really isn't gonna change the world, so give it up already! We could've gotten information from that assassin if you hadn't stopped me!"

Unga cracked her back as she straightened up and started down a stairs. Yakumo stayed at the exit of the tunnel though her eyes followed Unga now, bewildered at what she wanted to do.

The old one made her way past a magical gate and walked right into the masses, which moved aside for her. She was sneered and hissed at but no comprehensible words came from the group. They seemed to fear and hate her, with just enough fear not to attack her. Unga made her way to the wall where the assassin had been snatched. Little of its body remained. She knelt down, tapped into the fragments of the meridians and loosened the Enterran's core. A thin card appeared, crumbling already. Unga scowled, irritated the last chance to get information was useless.

She brought the card with her though, the crowd quickly closing behind her. The snakes earlier had tapped into the meridians already, so the card had halfway manifested into the real world, hence making it vulnrable. Such a shame, or luck, the assassin might have actually escaped if it hadn't been for that.

"It would've been the most merciful if she had simply let him die right away." she said to Yakumo as she returned to the entrance of the tunnel. Yakumo looked up, her eyes red from crying. Unga held out the card to Yakumo, who took it as gentle as she could. In her hands, it crumbled into its final pieces.

The old reptile placed a hand on the human's shoulder. "Let's go back up now."

**· · · · · · ·**

The citizens had just barely escaped an invasion and now word had come of a blue cloud moving in their direction, accompanied by ice cold winds. It was no difficult guess who was coming, the emperor would likely want to see what exactly happened here and they had no answer for him.

The small council that governed the city looked worriedly at the sky. Make-shift landing platforms had been prepared for the giants, the work of less than half an hour. Said platforms cracked dangerously as the dragons landed, but the four council members stepped onto them nonetheless. They approached the larger dragon, a three headed colossus that they expected to carry the emperor. But when a dark shape jumped off it's back, they froze. Casually, there stood the god of destruction, staring right through them.

Off course they'd heard the rumors. Yet meeting Mashuranbo up so close was nothing they were particularly prepared for. All around various reptiles slid off the dragon mounts, presumably court members judging by their garb. They looked around nervously for where ever lord Ryuma might be and-

"Why is there no red carpet?" Such a soft voice, yet it evoked a nervous response from all the ministers. The city council followed their gaze and looked up to the base of the three headed dragon's necks.

"You don't expect me to actually walk down that rubble, now?" He was irritated. And glaring down at them. And small. And definitely not the imposing general they expected.

In fact, he looked like a human.

_He looked like a human_.

If there was one rumor that most reptiles dismissed, then it was the rumor that their mighty overlord had the form of a small human child. It was a joke no one took serious ... and that apparently was true.

"Do you need much more time gawking like that? I'm waiting."

They did, indeed.

Merebeded walked up from the side and prodded one on the shoulder. "You really want to go get him a carpet."

There were no long, red carpets in the city, unfortunately. They tried to compensate with red colored straw mats, only to discover that by the time they got them to the dragon, Ryuma had already walked inside, having seemingly forgotten about it. They hoped, at least.

Ryuma loved formalities. Well, as long as they were with him gloriously in the center. One look at the dusty, rocky hall that the council used to discuss important events and he decided it wasn't worth the time. So he threatened the next best servant he saw to show him to the area where the cannon had been. The council was left standing with red straw mats in an empty hall, quite befuddled.

The canyon in the plateau was fairly straight, clearly smoothed out by those who lived and flew here. Pterodactyls regularly passed by, larger cargo dinosaurs made their way in the giant lane below. The whole area was buzzing with life, merchants screaming to praise their wares, the chatter of the buyers before them, on walls and aside of the lane. And this was a _quiet _time, with many citizens nervous and repressed due to the recent attack and all. Life went on very quickly though, getting back on its rails.

In short, Ryuma could see nothing too unusual. Considering the size of the cannon, it was surprising no marks were present of it's transport. If it consisted of many pieces and had been brought in by air, that could be explained. He decided to walk further into the canyon to the prior location of the cannon, but not before ordering Mashuranbo to put on a cloak. He'd like to go incognito for the moment and Mashuranbo was way too easily recognized. Of his ministers, Merebeded and Aiskek were too large to go across the wooden path that had been attached to the canyon wall, so they remained to deal with the council.

The cannon's suspected prior location did show some signs of presence. Holes were in the massive, dinosaur-resistant pavement of the road; for its anchors most likely. But the cannon had been buried, so the pavement had to have been moved _and put back_. Ryuma stepped on the railing and leaped down, landed on a hanging shop's roof, then down a few more the same way till he gracefully landed between two tents.

He drew some curious gazes once he walked into the open, but was mostly ignored as another eccentric traveler. He paid them even less attention as he walked to the center of the wide road. Most merchants seemed to avoid the area now, but the larger dinosaurs had no choice but to cross it. Under their weight the stone plates shifted ever so slightly : loose earth was under them. It hadn't been a trick, the cannon had been here. With the mess that the astral plane lately was Ryuma couldn't be too sure. At that moment, the salamander Vertigo appeared at this side, quickest down as she could climb walls. He held out his hand and she opened a bag she carried, unsheathing a square shard of mirror. Ryuma took it and tried to scry the area.

_Absolutely nothing to be seen_.

Who ever had been here had some masterly control of natural energies, for every indication of identity had been thoroughly erased. He could see nothing. Now, Ryuma was used to the province lords doing what they felt like, he rarely bothered to restrain anyone, knowing that he could at any time if it really needed to be. As long as his authority wasn't questioned, he didn't care what happened in his domain. But the care that was put into staying hidden from him indicated something was very wrong.

"Vertigo, it seems there is a rebellion brewing in my country." Ryuma said while sidestepped a Brachiosaur.

After a moment of hesitation, she replied : "My lord, with all due respect, ... they _are _defending our domain."

"Doesn't matter. They are not obeying _me_, so they are the enemy just as much as Lucifen is. I'm going to remedy that." He turned back to where he'd come from. "I want all the province masters informed that anyone who aids them will face me. Arrange for the armies to be given the same message."

An involuntary snort from Vertigo had him snap his head to face her, and she quickly forced her face straight.

"What was that?"

"My lord, how would I do that? Our domain has practically no infrastructure." She looked anxious, then seemed to decide on something. Taking a deep breath, she started : "Your late father and his prophets ordered the abolition of human influence shortly after the war was won, we stand no chance of organizing an army quick enough. And even if we would, the weaponry of our people stands is useless against what the birds seem to have."

Ryuma looked at her coldly. "My parents were morons, that's why they were disposed off. We will have weapons soon enough, don't worry about that. Use my mirrors to contact the province masters, we'll see from there on." As far as Ryuma was concerned, that was enough for the moment, he wanted to question the council now. But he had barely started to leave when Vertigo spoke again :"My lord, the province masters have no armies either."

Maybe she dared to be this irritating because she knew he wasn't in the mood for a swarm of grovelling citizens right now, so he would not use his powers to punish her. Maybe she really was desperate. He looked at his minister coldly and didn't answer. Another thing he never bothered to do was check up on just what exactly the statistics of his domain were, it had never even crossed his mind.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"We don't have much citizens when compared to the birds, and hence, less soldiers, my lord."

"How would you know that?"

"Lady Unga questioned your human about the information she had obtained from the birds and I've made a rough estimate of our population a few years ago. Our society has the strong thrive on the weak, many even prey on other sapient citizens. We have a small group of incredibly powerful warriors that compete with each other and an increasingly larger chunk of weaker prey citizens. The birds have about five times as much sapient individuals as we have and they are not limited to physical strength to be a soldier."

That was bad news. Yep, Vertigo had definitely waited with telling him about it till an opportunity occurred where he wouldn't just freeze her or hurl from from a dragon's back. Ryuma needed quite some self restraint to keep himself in check.

"You should have told me that sooner."

His eyes narrowed and Vertigo shrunk, but at that moment Yuid finally arrived, panting from the stairs he'd been running down to keep up.

"My lord, please forgive us, but ... " he said, while wrestling past a group of packed Stegosaurus.

"But _what_? Lucifen has broken the contract, we're the last domain standing. Yet you idiots keep information from me?"

"We are trying to help our country, my lord. We can't do that if you kill us in a fit of anger." snarled Vertigo.

"You are unusually blunt today, Vertigo." said Ryuma, attempting to sound unimpressed, but secretly had to admit she had a point in that too. However, the next thing she said pushed past the line of his easily broken tolerance.

"It's not our fault that his is happening! You forsook your duties, you play around and-"

A thin line of energy shot vertically up and Vertigo cried out. Yuid rushed to her as she collapsed, only to be hit by the same attack.

"I will not tolerate such insults." he sneered.

The epitome of social hierarchy, his father had learned him, was a structure that balanced the abilities of a sapient mind with the order of nature : the strongest on top, the weakest below, in a pyramid of power ascension. The Enterrans had won the war with pure power that had been granted to them by the forces of nature, yet it happened that Enterrans of refined skill and mind were masters over warriors technically stronger than them. The meteorite's gift had been justice, as it did not grant powers to the humans. They didn't need technology, just their own minds and powers, so the Enterrans were perfect.

Unwanted information came to his mind, specifically an article in the bird Wired that cited Ryuma as a despotic ruler, but so detached from his domain that a linear hierarchy had formed outside of the central control area. In other words, Ryuma was under the illusion of absolute power, there were other competitors. It was an unsettling idea.

Sunk into his thoughts, Ryuma did not immediately notice the increasing silence around him. Dinosaurs stopped passing around him. He suddenly grew aware of a small group formed nearby.

Some worried passerby's had gathered around the collapsed Vertigo and Yuid. Their thick scent betrayed increasing anxiety. Some helped the collapsed salamander and Dimetrodon stand up, while a few others turned to Ryuma.

"Hey, tourist, you saw what happened here, right?"

He wasn't quite sure what to answer. Most merchants and buyers around stared full of fear at the area, he could hear their whispers with his sharp ears.

"I know there was something wrong with that place ever since those rebels were here."

"Why didn't it hit that other one?"

"Someone get a doctor!"

"It looked like lightning, maybe it has something to do with the emperor and his storm? Maybe they did something wrong."

"Maybe the rebels planted a bomb or something to explode when the Emperor arrives!"

"You're right, that lightning thing didn't happen before! We have to get out of here!"

In the middle of the buzz, Ryuma heard the first question repeated.

"I asked you, what happened here? You must've seen something."

Ryuma looked over the sloppily dressed, stinking worksman, saw the frightened eyes of Vertigo and Yuid. He was in no mood for this and decided to walk away.

A larger hand grabbed his cloak and pulled him back. "I'm talking to you, tourist. Can't you speak Common or something?"

Ryuma staggered back, stumbling across his own feet. Now he was pissed. The hand that grabbed him let go, but not soon enough for his liking. As in, he wasn't going to let this insolence slip.

Before the worksman had another chance at speaking, his hand froze over. He cried out as the devastating cold crept up his arm, deeper into his body.

"That's your own fault, you should have more manners." replied Ryuma smugly.

The whispers increased, now that they'd seen his frost powers, these morons would figure out quick enough who he was, then the grovelling would come. He really wasn't in the mood for that, all these filthy commoners cluttering around him and ...

The response was not quite what he expected.

"_That_ is the new emperor? No wonder he keeps hidden." was the first thing he heard said.

"Lord Ryuma, I think you should leave." said Yuid soon after. Their eyes met, both Yuid and Vertigo looked urging. This wasn't just fear of him.

The crowd did not kneel and break into worship, as he was used to happening to crowds that had been informed of his presence. Then again, such crowds tended to be of the "royal" class, this was the first time he found himself surrounded by hundreds of commoners, all looking at him.

"How ugly. Just like a human ... is he just as weak as one?"

"What do you all think you're doing? I'm your emperor, kneel!" Ryuma called out.

Some very frightened fools nearby wanted to fall to their knees, but others took their shoulders and kept them standing.

"Who are you to deserve that title?" a heavy voice asked.

Like wildfire the rumor spread across the market, the crowd became thicker. Ryuma kept his composure despite further rising frustration. Several collossal Ceratosauric Enterrans emerged from all around, they were the market guards.

"The council may grovel before you, but we don't want you here." said their leader in a low voice.

"You will pay for this disobedience." said Ryuma with a sharp edge to his voice, one that his ministers were all too familiar with. Ryuma estimated the situation. These vaguely imposing guards were not entirely certain of their case, for then they would have already attacked. Ryuma decided to stretch time a little while his eyes went over the area, calculating what to do and not to do. He didn't want a pterodactyl collapsing on his head or something like that.

"So, I take this as a rebellion."

The leader chuckled. "We can't rebel against one which we did not submit to."

His newfound opponents were a little nervous. Good. "So what makes you think I'm not worthy?"

"You came to check out who defended this city, didn't you? They forced their way in and only won by a trick. We could handle them, which you apparently can't. Did you even know they existed, little boy?"

Ryuma smirked. "Do you even know why this little boy is the emperor of the reptiles? Do you know why he doesn't have to go around establishing his dominance?"

"Because you don't have it!" someone in the crowds yelled. Others broke out in similar yelping, shouting about how he was a failure as a ruler, he was't there for his people, he's be overthrown soon by the rebels, all he could do was conjure fancy storms and so on and on. They got carried away in a strange euphoria, inspired by what they had witnessed when the birds invaded. Ryuma could accurately describe his inner state as boiling with anger, but refrained from undignified behavior. Speaking about heat, the moisture of the jungle made the air thick with humidity. It didn't take long for Ryuma to drop the temperature. First gradually, then he pulled free a sudden sharp wind through the canyon ledge.

A moment of distraction was enough and he pulled his sword free. A few quick steps and he had reached the first supposed guard, treating him with the edge of the weapon. One sliced open head later and Ryuma leaped out of the way of the blood. Now the other came into motion and the crowds scattered slowly, the frost already wearing down on them. This would be easy.

Now, these guards were large and took a little longer to cool down. He didn't have time to direct a wave of frost against his next attacker, nor the chance to go to hypermode. Off course, these guards were used to dealing with clumsy Brachiosaurus and rampant Deinonychus alike, they were rather quick.

Ryuma jumped across an arm, onto another, then up the wall, further up and up while increasing the winds. In a slip second as he went higher, he noticed Mashuranbo was gone. But no time to think about that now. His pursuers were on his heels, seemingly with increased confidence about him fleeing. Fools. This was called luring someone to an area where they were vulnerable and not getting him dirty from chopping limbs.

Using magic they could not see, he drew together water into the ridges between rocks and forced it into ice all around him. When he had them all below him, he forced the ice to expand. Cracks appeared in the walls, growing with the expanding ice. His pursuers noticed way too late what was going on.

The rumble of the collapsing walls ran ahead of an all-enveloping cloud of dust, drowning the cries of everyone caught under it. From atop the canyon Ryuma idly looked down, wondering whether he accidentally killed his ministers as well. Not that he really cared.

The setting sun shone across the canyon with a complementary golden glow, outlining the damage Ryuma's trick had done. That should teach them. He could've just had Grandora or Mashuranbo take care of it, but then it would've been like he actually _needed _help for trivial little things like this.

Now where the heck was Mashuranbo?

**· · · · · · ·**

Yakumo had two wounds from the encounter, one on her back, one cut on her leg. They were not so deep they completely impaired her and with some of Unga's medicine the pain kept back. She'd been told to to stay on her bed till the wounds were better though.

However, the crown no longer directly controlled her body nor her mind, somehow. She didn't quite understand, maybe it related to what little control she had gained over the snakes. For the first time, she could feel the energy in the gem on her chest, seeping from a source deep inside her. The snakes now drained from it eagerly and this seemed to allow some silence to the crown. Perfect control she did not have over them, but she could suggest them things. Strange, how the fear subsided a little now she could feel them alive, hidden as they were.

One suggestion was to form a stronger bandage around the wounds, so she could get up. Better as in, could walk again seemed to satisfy the crown, and it did not harm her. The crown did not object and Yakumo couldn't help but smile when for the first time in who knew how long she had full control of her limbs again. Her eyes went to the balcony, the sky outside was clear and full of stars.

A lot of thoughts welled through her head as she stood out there, looking up. The death she had witnessed down there was not one she would easily forget. The memories of her friends returned, as this too was no longer fully repressed by the crown ... Mashura killed eagerly, but he never had seemed to take joy in inflicting harm, so his kills tended to be clean. But 300 years ago, she had seen this sort of death during the war. Any semblance of childhood was gone the first time she saw someone lynched, a young Enterran infiltrant in a human base.

It was why she couldn't bring herself to hate the Enterrans as all the other humans did. She knew given the wrong motivations humans could be just as dreadful as the Enterrans. They had said the murder of the Enterran spy had been for the best, though no one spoke about the way said spy had been killed.

Her eyes fell on the remnants of the card that still remained in her hand. She'd clutched onto them the entire time.

_You must die, for the sake of all who live in these lands_.

The assassin had come to kill her because they believed that she was distracting Ryuma. For the sake of protecting the reptiles against the invasion, someone had risked their life to sneak into Ryuma's castle, to kill the devil that kept him away. Now, Yakumo seriously doubted Ryuma would've noticed anything whether or not she had been around, which made it all the more a waste. Yet she got some bitter hope from the encounter.

"_I am not the only one on this world_." she thought. "_Even if this world won't have me, it did create me. And if it really makes no difference, why would I change and lose myself right away?"_

She held out her hands over the edge of the balcony. The wind gently plucked away the remnants of the card.

So Yakumo made a promise : "I will try to protect your people in your stead".

Then she reconsidered that line. "No_, _they are _my_ people too." With that, she returned inside, set to change something. Her patience with sitting still was used dry.

**· · · · · · ·**

**Author's Note** : _In episode 13 when Ryuma walked through the city, nobody seemed to recognize him as their emperor. Therefore, I presume that it is not common knowledge amongst the citizens what he looks like._

_Pterodactyls are extinct flying reptiles (not dinosaurs) that live in areas with thermal updrafts. One appears in the anime when abducting the conveniently placed mascots, being way too large to fly and hunt effectively in the weak drafts of a jungle. So I'm pretending they're mutants domesticated by sapient Enterrans with alternative ways of feeding them and some mild magic to keep them flying. Brachiosaurs similarly wouldn't be inhabitants of the dense jungle either, since they are so enormous they wouldn't be able to move properly._


	6. Inaction Sequence

**· · · · · · ·**

"Yet you're not ordering me to stop talking."

"Hmph."

Two security increases and one assassination attempt after Ryuma left, Unga found herself arguing with a human child over geography and war strategy. The old witch was used to Ryuma inciting all sorts of bizarre circumstances, but he'd really done it now. This human here claimed to want to _help _the Enterrans in a war. Bye bye solid world view.

"So ... this machine of yours, Hakuba, he'd be able to calculate Lucifen's next move?" she said reluctantly after a long silence. Blue eyes lightened up as she finally asked.

"Yes! He can calculate wind velocities, strategic locations, everything. He is a supercomputer built by my father, he equipped Hakuba with anything we might need. He will still be in the area, he is loyal to me." Yakumo said eagerly.

When Unga didn't reply again, she continued : "I know you're worried a lot about Ryuma and I don't think you want the civilians to suffer either. Lucifen doesn't really _need_ a mayor city as base to conquer this domain. The tribes that live here are not connected by a central government, she'd have to conquer them one by one. Every conquest she makes will be a definite step closer to the castle, and there are no major defenses to stop them, many will die or be enslaved. Would you let that happen just because Ryuma _didn't _specifically tell you to help him?"

"Ah, I wondered when I was going to see your sneaky side, human."

**· · · · · · ·**

The feeling of grass under her feet was so alien yet familiar and utterly wonderful. She'd gotten strange stares when she pulled off her shoes and started twirling across the grass, for reptiles with their scaled feet didn't feel the grass. She must have looked like mad to them, but she didn't care.

Unga just shook her head and handed out papers with scribbled drawings of Hakuba's appearance on then. Several small pterodactyls took them and went off, flying in all directions. They'd already searched over the mountains, Hakuba was not there. Yakumo had remembered the kittens and how they'd need food and water, so Hakuba probably would've retreated to the edge of the rainforest.

So they would wait here in plain sight, maybe Hakuba was on the look-out and would come. In the mean time, Yakumo couldn't help but enjoy the warmth of the sun. She eventually dropped on her back and just lay there, letting the sun shine in her face. It didn't drive away the present, but it did grant some relief.

"You know an awful lot about things like invasions for someone who goes around preaching peace." Yakumo looked aside to see Unga sitting down next to her.

"Oh ... yes. My father didn't keep back anything from me about history and warfare, he learned me about it so that I would understand it's cruelty. I've been present at several meetings of the human forces as they planned their strategies, since my father was a key player."

"He was one of the people involved in creating us, wasn't he?"

Yakumo stared at her a little incredulous. She seemed to actually be trying to make small-talk, as far as the topic allowed that.

"Yes, it's something he's always regretted. He never meant for the Enterrans to be used the way they were."

"Way too late to say that." Unga muttered.

"Centuries too late..." Yakumo hovered her hand above her, blocking out the bright sun. "I traveled to make up for it, for those that remain and for my father's guilt."

"There's no place on earth they could hide, you fool." Her voice lacked life, as it often did. Yakumo mused about how Unga always stated things without seeming to mean them. Were those her opinions or those of Ryuma?

"Do you really know that, Unga?"

"Shinzo is a myth."

"There are many myths about the devil that I supposedly am, but in the middle of that, I do exist. " She called forth one of the snakes of the dress, letting it curl around her fingers. They didn't seem so frightening, now she could control them somewhat.

Shinzo, a mystical concept that arose from a fairly new religion just before the war, a religion that was one of the last that remained intact. In their last days at their epitome of science, humans had strangely turned to religion again, perhaps an act of despair. Shinzo, the collective name of an undefined sanctuary, many of the refugee areas had been referred to as "going to Shinzo". The only one that supposedly remained of all those was Center.

The idea played through her head that if she could get a moment alone with Ryuma's primary mirror, she might perhaps scry to find them. But she put aside that thought. With the world at the brink of another war, this was the worst time to get any humans involved. Also, she had to play this carefully, so that the limited freedom she had now would not be taken away again.

She sat up and faced the rain forest, then decided to continue the somewhat abandoned conversation. This she didn't really want to talk about, but it had to be done.

"What exactly is the story of the Enterrans in the cracks around the castle?"

"They were the earliest attempts of the humans at creating their slaves. Failures, if you will. They are utterly mad, they'd kill everything they got their hand on. Most Enterrans had the mercy to kill them, mercy on them and on those who they would eat once they got out. Ryuma's parents used them as berserker forces however, using frost powers to train them into obedience, as far as that was possible. Evidence of the superiority of combined power and intellect, my former lord called it."

Yakumo let the snake around her fingers slither away, exploring the grass. She smiled slightly as she could feel the grass through it. So she let the other snakes out, trying to distract herself from what she was tempted to suggest.

"Can we use them ..." She stopped abruptly, feeling a strong resentment well up.

"Use them for what?" Too late. The crown forced her to answer.

"If we would get the bird army close enough to the ground, I think they could handle them."

Unga sceptically watched the silver snakes as they 'discovered' the concept of playing and swatted away one that got too close for her liking.

"Good luck getting them close to the ground then."

"Into the rain forest, where they would lack flight mobility." Yakumo added. "We'd create strong winds or use something similar to the cannon those rebels used."

Unga startled. "How do you know about that?"

"It's common knowledge amongst the servants. I heard them talk about it when they came to take care of my wounds. It's human technology in fact. We'd have to evacuate the citizens who live in the area before unleashing them, off course. And how sapient are they? Can we have them move in accordance to a specific strategy?"

"Yakumo ... shut up."

It was painfully obvious that the human knew what she was talking about. It wasn't that Unga didn't want to hear it, but that she knew Ryuma would be awfully ticked off once he came home and heard his doll woke up and had started the war plans Ryuma still had gotten nowhere with.

As far as Unga knew, Yakumo was the child of one of the greatest geniuses of the human species and when given the chance, she would likely be able to live up to her father. In addition, unlike Ryuma she'd been present in an actual war, watching the star players from below and learning first hand. Ryuma perhaps had information from the Wired downloaded in his memory, he had no idea how to use it without guidance. Yakumo did.

That was an apocalyptic incompatibility with Ryuma's ego.

Unga was in a pinch. At this point, catering to Ryuma's whims would cause conflict with what was best for him. Now, she could shut up Yakumo permanently and present the doll to him once he returned, or she could let her do something. She could still go back now ...

"_Who am I kidding_?" Unga thought when one of the pterodactyls returned, calling he'd found the target. A heavy frown was on her face as she stood up. "Yakumo, come along."

_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-C-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_-o-O-o-_

Hakuba had indeed elected an area to hide close to the mountains yet safe from sight. A small stream was close by so that the kittens could obtain water. A long extinguished clumsy camp fire was in a small opening, and hidden in the bushes a speck of white.

Their dragon landed farther away on a larger clearing and Yakumo, escorted by Unga and three palace guards, made her way to the smaller clearing. She motioned to Unga whether she could have her speech back.

"Sure."

Yakumo smiled and darted forward into the thick undergrowth, limping with her injured leg but unable to keep a slow pace. Unga cursed when she noticed Yakumo hadn't just asked for permission to speak again.

"Hakuba!"

She tripped over a few times, too hurried to reach her friends. When the robot detected her voice, he appeared from the undergrowth.

"Yakumo." His voice dry as ever, it was difficult to tell he was glad to see her but she knew him well. Even though for a robot it was a futile gesture, she embraced his long neck. Hakuba opened his cabin, three small yellow heads appeared. The kittens first stared a bit incredulous and uncertain. Sanju was the first to leap out, clutching onto Yakumo. The twin was quick to follow. She let go of Hakuba, needing both her arms to keep them steady.

"I missed you, missed you so much." Sanju wailed, crying her eyes out. "It's okay now, I'm here." Yakumo said gently. Kittens still in her arms, Yakumo sat down on the ground and let them sit on her lap, as far as it fit. She felt her eyes go wet.

"I was worried, Yakumo. Are you alright?" asked Hakuba.

"I'm ... okay." she said while stroking the kittens across their little heads. They looked famished, what little food was with Hakuba must've been used up. The last time they'd properly eaten must have been at the restaurant where Mashura, Sago and Kutal had kept their eating contest. How long ago was that?

The twins loosened from her embrace and Rei said :"Where were you? Where is Mashuranbo and uncle Kutal?" Her look saddened. "They're still captive." she whispered. "So am I. But don't worry, it'll be okay. I'm working on getting things in the right direction." She managed an encouraging smile, and the three kittens brightened up a bit.

"I'm hungry."

"So am I." said a gruff, deep voice. The kittens startled and hid behind Yakumo, who turned to look at Unga and the guards who'd just come from the undergrowth.

"Oh great, you didn't say you had annoying mascots." remarked Unga irritably.

"They won't be trouble." Yakumo said, while keeping a harsh eye on the guard that had not so subtly implied eating them.

"They better not be." said Unga before shifting her attention to Hakuba.

"Machine, can you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Then listen carefully. Your mistress is now property of the Emperor Ryuma, therefore you are as well. You will follow her, and do as you're told."

"There is no need to say such things. I will follow Yakumo with or without permission from you."

"Hmgph."

This was going to be a wonderful work relationship.

The kittens were startled by the large guards, but tried to put up futile airs. One of them picked up San who screamed unbloody murder.

"Put him down!" They didn't listen to Yakumo.

"Listen to that sound. I wonder whether it can go l-yaough!" Yakumo had ordered her snakes to pull away the legs from under the guard, who gracelessly pummeled to the ground. She didn't have enough control or trust of the snakes yet to let them catch San, so she lunged for him with her hands, barely catching him. She glared down at the guard for a moment, then put San in Hakuba's passenger compartment.

"Kittens, we're going to the castle now. Rei, Sanju, come on." She knelt to pick them up. "Don't worry about these snakes, they won't harm you."

"What castle?"

**· · · · · · ·**

That would be the big, fancy, glittery, sparkly castle of magical ice of which the staff hadn't been properly informed of the absence of it's doll empress. Everyone had monk leaped to the conclusion the evil devil human had woken up and threatened Unga to help her escape and there was glorious panic on what to do now. Most folks presumed Ryuma would kill them once he came back and were hoping he'd skip the torture, some were writing their last will.

So, when Yakumo suddenly stood in the kitchen with three starving Enterran toddlers and requested food for them, it took a while before the rest of the court believed it.

"Don't eat too fast, you might get ill." she told the twin as they chomped down on the food that had been served. Sitting at this simple table in the kitchen felt bizarrely nostalgic. It was more like the cheap inns they sometimes stayed at than the empty ice halls. Even if the kitchen staff was practically fuming fear and suspicion at her presence.

By the time the kittens were done with their main course, in came a formally dressed anthropomorphic frog or salamander, she wasn't sure. Yakumo vaguely recognized him, though most of the time before when the crown still had total government of her motion was a haze. Then she recalled him as the one who had sealed the wedding between her and Ryuma, the so called master of protocols and a religious leader.

"Look at that hat!" said Sanju. "Shh, don't be rude." said Yakumo gently and steered her towards dessert.

"Yakumo ..."

"Yes?"

He never blinked, but the second skin of his eyes flashed across a lot, she figured he was nervous. His tongue clacked a bit, as if stalling time before he spoke. She decided to go ahead.

"I am awake and aware, as you've noticed. Master of protocols, will you sit down?" She gestured at a chair.

"I'll be fine standing."

"Please sit, I need to discuss something with you and it might take some time."

"We'd appreciate it if you went back to your chambers, you-"

"No. Lucifen is approaching this castle and people are dying." She pointed at Hakuba, who was in a side-chamber being cleaned by some servants.

"That is my friend and guide Hakuba, he is a robot and he will help us defend ourselves against the invasion."

"You have no authority here! Go back to your room!"

Yakumo stayed right where she was and handed around napkins to the kittens. "You have no authority either over me. I've never seen you amongst the province lords or even doing anything that relates to the political affairs."

"I still have more authority than the stupid doll of the emperor!" His voice became strangely high-pitched.

Yakumo firmly said : "That will change. Ryuma made me his empress against my will. Well then, I'm going to act as an empress, whether he likes it or not! Now please sit down." She gestured at the empty chair opposite of her again.

Hesitantly, the protocol master complied. Once he was seated, Yakumo continued to speak.

"You know my name. May I know yours?"

"Radure Adavou."

"Thank you. Radure, please listen to me. I want to try and predict Lucifen's next attack, so that we can set up a proper defense. If I assume correctly, now that the ministers are gone you are the one with most connections here? I need a map of the entire domain with its cities, rivers and rainforest type and estimates of how many people live there."

"How is that going to help predict an attack?" said Radure with suspicion evident in his tone. "It sounds more like you want to know in what direction to escape."

Yakumo sighed softly.

"If I wanted and could escape, I would have done so in Hakuba by now. This crown can still control me enough to stop me."

"So what? Why would a human want to help us? All you want to do is find other humans and enslave us again!"

She was about to deny this vehemently, but realized that might actually be true. Humans would want to take their planet back and Unga's words echoed in her head.

_This is the way the world works. We're all savages._

So Yakumo chose different words :"I don't know what they will do. I do know the world Lucifen wants to create is not a world I would want to bring humans into. A certain time ago I accidentally downloaded ... received a large chunk of information from the ehm, astral plane of the bird empire. I've seen the world she'll create, it won't be a free world for anyone."

She looked around, meeting the eyes of the weary servants. "You don't want to lose your families, right? So please ... please let me help. Ryuma won't pull this off on his own."

Many turned their heads away, fearing Ryuma's ever scrying eyes might see them engage in traitorous talk, suspecting, hoping he was monitoring her every move.

"You're not wanted here." said Radure. "Go back to your room."

Nobody looked at her, and Yakumo felt a very obnoxious little hand of despair tucking at her mind. She wouldn't let it. Radure went to leave.

Yakumo wouldn't leave it at that and said : "There will be a staff meeting in the throne chamber announced shortly. Anyone willing to help their own cause is welcome." She then placed a hand on Sanju's head and smiled at the kittens. "Why don't you three help me then?"

**· · · · · · ·**

Ryuma tried to walk back to where ever the court was, but the citizens hurried through the small passageways, to tend to the catastrophe. Only a few who had managed to catch rumor of who the reptile lord was drew back as they recognized him and cleared way, those that did get in his way regretted it soon.

Unlike usually, his current triumph didn't quite help to soothe his mind. If what his minister had said held true, he was in a tough position. Warfare against humans he had heard about and singular combat was an art he practiced. But actual warfare against other Enterran armies?

There had to be some useful information amidst the chaotic nonsense that had entered his brain when he had tried to hack Lucifen's astral plain, aka cyberspace. But he did not know where to start. What little footage and descriptions he uncovered were for airborne, agile armies and of no use for his brutal reptile nation. All it got him was a strange sensation akin to pain as too much information came at once.

When he met the small court of the city again, the fear he was used to inspire was all about them, but not even that gave him any satisfaction. He could smell their anger alongside their fear, and it rubbed him the wrong way. They pathetically tried to keep up some protocol, seated around their stone table and acting formal while surely thinking different things.

"Lord Ryuma, would you please explain what happened?"

Tensed voice, a slash of indignation. Were they trying to get on his bad side? As if he had any obligation to explain himself to such lowlife. He didn't bother to sit down at the chair that was held out for him, nor to answer the question.

"One of your scum patrol said the rebels got in with a trick, suggesting they're weaker than your defense forces." he said.

After a moment of hesitation : "With all respect, no. I believe they were far stronger and our guard merely bragged. The strangers used a blinding trick that prevented us from seeing. They seemed very cautious about the whole affair, as if they didn't want to harm anyone. In fact, when one of them started harassing the citizens, the leader stopped him. Aside from that one and his servants, they were very respectful in fact."

"Oh, indeed?"

An uneasy silence fell.

"You believe, hm?" Ryuma slowly walked around the table. "You believe they were far stronger, yet you haven't really seen them in action."

"We could t-"

"You apparently think you're some sort of expert on estimating the strength of warriors. Why is that, hm? Does your city regularly home powerful warriors, that you'd have such an eye for power? Maybe there's something you're not telling me."

Ryuma didn't honestly believe they associated with the true warrior class of his domain, let alone with any real rebels. If they did, the court wouldn't consist of such pathetically weak people. But he liked taunting them with something they would be sane enough not to rebuke.

And then someone was stupid enough to try doing exactly that.

"Lord Ryuma, if you're implying we're under the same rock as the rebels, then ... then... "

"Then what?" he asked with a smug smile.

"You know perfectly well we're not. Why are you toying around with our citizens when you should be warding off the invaders? Those 'rebels' are not our enemy!"

Oh, that was _it._ This lack of respect, along with the way the crowd had spoken of him and the rebellious attitude of the guards, was the glass to the full bucket. And how dare he say 'our citizens', as opposed to 'your citizens'?

It was just so easy to kill them and it wasn't like he had any obligations to them. It took little power to subdue them all, he didn't bother gathering up their cards. Ryuma then marched out, having more than enough of this filthy city.

He stepped onto a balcony and raised a hand, gathering the mystical energies of his ice force. The temperature of the city started to drop again as he took in the energy of the heat for himself, right out of the air and out of the weak meridians of the citizens. Only a few splinters of snow appeared, then ice started to form across everything. Panicked screams rose from a crowd that barely had calmed down in the streets, only to become quiet quickly.

As cold blooded lifeforms, they had no defense. Soon, all within the city were dead.

The only ones remaining were three of his ministers — the fourth idiot had probably not moved quick enough during the collapse earlier — and his dragons, which he omitted since he needed someone to carry the loot. Said three ministers had been smart enough to move towards the dragons the moment the cold began to drop, so it'd been easy. He met them there.

"You worried about lack of soldiers, Vertigo? You can start be resurrecting and recruiting these here." Ryuma nonchalantly kicked a card that was before his feet. The ice already started to melt and the waters were retreating into the sub-space where his powers originated. Left behind were the core cards of the dead citizens, their bodies stored in hyperspace as well.

"Just mix them till you got something usable. Now, let's go find those rebels, shall we?" said Ryuma, after which he left walked past them, to Grandora.

The ministers looked over the scene, failing at hiding their horror. They had to wonder just what they had thought when they had applied for the role of minister. Wasn't that for the sake of their country?

A strangely familiar scent gradually made its way to them. Ryuma mounted Grandora and shouted from above :"What's taking you so long?" Then he too noticed Mashuranbo, standing as stoic as ever in the door from hence Ryuma had just come.

"Where have you been?"

Naturally, no answer came.

"Gather up these cards."

Mashuranbo complied, turning away again to make his way into the city. Ryuma didn't notice from his angle, but the ministers could see a tiny smirk play on Mashuranbo's face. And he saw them too, staring right back from the corner of his eye.

**· · · · · · ·**


	7. Eldritch Geography

**· · · · · · ·**

Hakuba had managed to create a functional holographic project of the globe, using his maps and some astral field information.

Three hundred years ago, those maps had been accurate. Currently however, there were some issues. For one thing, it turned out that that ocean Yakumo had seen in the astral plane reflection of the bird empire was in fact an actual ocean, and not some mystical form as she had assumed.

"How did Egypt become a sea? I was at the Statue of Liberty and there wasn't an ocean in sight! What happened to the water levels?"

"I presume they are presently dancing in their underpants. Now can we focus on that predicting the next invasion, as you mentioned?" Unga said.

"Unga, just ... . When I came to Zoar city, we passed an acid lake a few hundred meters away from a pH neutral river, a river which by the way is flowing _towards_ a range of mountains, defying gravity! How are we supposed to plan a strategical counter-offensive if we can't trust the laws of nature?"

_And why didn't I notice any of this before_?

Unga just shrugged.

"Hakuba?"

"I have no further information."

"Okay then... In present day time, water mutated to the point of defying gravity, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. I can work with that. I'll just need to know direction these rivers here _do _flow and how fierce they are. If we're going to move an army anywhere, this will be important." Her fingers traced the flow of the rivers across the hologram.

At that moment one of the side doors opened. A few curious eyes peeked in, then quickly vanished. Yakumo sighed, apparently none had the courage to come forth. She then knelt down with the kittens, who were frantically drawing stuff on a paper. She had asked them to draw down anything they might have learned at school. The scribbles weren't really helpful, but she thanked them for it anyway.

When she looked at a drawing of the home town of the kittens and saw what probably were evergreens, she became aware of another strange event.

Kutal had been traveling on a different continent altogether, far away from this tropical region where they had met the kittens. Yet the kittens had been here, in what used to be the Asian continent, in this jungle, precisely at the spot where she and her friends had emerged from subspace. It didn't even remotely make sense.

"Little ones, just how exactly did you end up in the jungle, looking for you uncle?"

"Uh, I dunno." said Sanju. "We just went looking for him and we ended up in that Pteranodon's claws."

As they brought up the Pteranodon, yet another problem presented itself. That animal hadn't had the artificial wings many Enterrans used to fly. How could it even propel itself above a jungle, with no place to catch the wind and no feathers? And why was it feeding on kittens? It shouldn't even be able to swoop down between the trees with that size.

"- It almost feels like something is playing with us. -" she thought with a frown.

That side door opened again, in it appeared two very familiar reptiles; the two handmaids Ryuma had assigned to her. Yakumo stood up and waited to see what they would do.

Uncertainly one of them stepped into the hall, they'd never been in her presence without her being completely controlled (as far as they knew). Anxiously they observed her, and they drew back when she reached out a hand.

"Don't worry." she said with her simple friendliness. "What are your names?"

They didn't answer, but then the one that stayed back raised her hand to her throat and made a tear-away gesture. Yakumo's eyes widened in shock as she realized that the ripples that had seemed like part of their skin at first were in fact scars.

"He didn't like their voices." Unga grumbled from behind her. "Let them be, they won't be of any help on this sorta thing."

"Do you at least know their names?"

"Nope."

Yakumo thought it over for a moment. Then she said : "Can either of you write?"

The one closer to Yakumo nodded and a smile appeared on Yakumo's face as she clapped her hands together. "I'll be back in a moment." she said.

She ran out and found some more papers where she had taken them for the kittens earlier. For the heck of it, she now brought along a whole stack. When she returned with that and a number of pens, she found that the number in the hall had increased somewhat.

Radure had also come and was arguing with Unga, Yakumo only caught part of it though. She walked to her two handmaids and gave them the paper. The hesitantly took it, then stepped back and started writing something. Yakumo let them be at ease and went to Radure and Unga.

The ceremony master was quite busy trying to convince Unga to quit this madness, but now that Unga had set her mind to helping Ryuma, even if he didn't want it, well, the old one had quite a tongue.

Radure however had a tongue to match. Yakumo looked on for a moment and remembered the situation well. It was the sort of fight Mashura, Kutal and Sago were prone to engage in, the sort that never got solved. Not allowing herself to linger on futile thoughts on what she had lost, Yakumo stepped in between them and pushed them apart. With just her human strength that might have been impossible, but now she had her silver snakes. At the sight of of what took hold of him, Radure drew back on his own. He had already heard she had seized control of Ryuma's magic to a degree, but that was so hard to unite with the image of the weak human that it caught him off guard.

With all eyes in the hall already focused on her, this didn't go unnoticed. Much to her dismay, Yakumo realized a few of the servants fled.

"The nerve... " Radure snapped, but his voice was trembling. Yakumo recoiled the serpents into the white fabric again.

More towards the crowd than Radure, she spoke : "I said this before, I'm doing this for the people of these lands. If you don't believe that I'd help you, then consider this : I seek Shinzo to find other humans and unite them with the world. If this world is controlled by someone like Lucifen, then there would be no point in finding them. We have a common goal, so let me help out. _All _of our lives are at stake!"

Her words seemed to have little effect at first, the group just anxiously started chatting together. The hall filled with murmurs of her this wretched human would surely lead them to destruction and similar horror stories. Yakumo looked on at loss, didn't know what else she could say.

She turned to Unga, bearing an almost pleading expression.

The old magician sighed, scolded herself silently and pushed herself up from the stairs.

"Quit the noise!" Unga yelled abruptly. At the witch's threatening sneer, the crowd silenced.

"I'm just going to throw this in the open here : Lord Ryuma is chasing rebels whom he knows have control over the astral plane and he has hidden himself from their scrying powers. This also means he is not connected to the castle and cannot see or hear anything related to us." she said clearly.

The court members looked at each other in absolute uncertainty, all waiting for someone else to do something they could follow. The smarter soon started to realize what this meant though. Human or not, they did want to survive and Ryuma didn't seem to offer them that. Then one uttered the words that always were on their minds and never spoken.

"When has Ryuma ever been a leader to us?" said a thin brown crocodile.

So it started.

With fear peeling away, anger welled up. Ryuma was like a child with toys and the denizens of his realm carried the words of years of abuse. The very people he had gathered to serve his court was testimony of that very fact. The people of various species he had found by scrying, individuals he thought had fitting skills or elegant looks. Often they had been forcefully pulled away from their homes. As such they come from literary all over the land and had contacts according to such, which might just help out in the future. More importantly though, they knew a lot about the lands.

While some accounts conflicted, Hakuba managed to compose a detailed map on the reptile domain soon enough.

Over all the buzz however, the continuous question remained : What is Ryuma going to do when he finds out we helped the human? Yakumo tried to assure her she would take whatever blow might come and tried to explain she had already been able to hold conversation with the reptile lord in the dreamscapes. However, she wasn't half as certain of herself as she sounded. After all, if Ryuma wanted to he could probably have Unga put a greater seal on her mind than before. Also, she wasn't sure whether she should get these people involved. But on the other hand, she couldn't sit still either and watch everyone die.

"Are you sure you can handle it if he confronts you over this?" Yakumo looked up from the papers she'd been showing to Hakuba and found the red crocodile.

"I am facing you all now too, aren't I?"

"But we don't bite half as hard as Ryuma does." How long had it been ago that someone spoke so casually to her, without the obligatory honorifics spoken with despise? Then again, he had been the first to voice his distaste of Ryuma, so she wasn't too surprised.

"That is true." She had to smile, this Enterran actually seemed to try to make small talk.

"What is your name?"

"Would you even remember? I might decide to split soon rather than risk Ryuma's wrath."

"All the more reason to tell me your name, so that I can call out to you if we ever meet again."

"Easchu." he said casually. "So, how does this map calculation thing work?"

Curiosity probably kept him here, Yakumo figured. So she explained how they needed to get into Lucifen's head in order to understand what she was up to.

During this, yet another curious question lingered in her mind. Why could she understand their language? After 300 years, language should have changed to the point she barely understood it and this crocodile didn't even have human lips.

What was going on with the world?

**· · · · · · ·**

Deep within the green of the jungle, a hundred eyes looked at the high sky. A small group of dragons passed there.

"Don't do this. He destroyed you before." whispered the nagini.

"Mashuranbo? Hah, I nearly defeated him back then, my only mistake was waking that girl. That's an error I won't be repeating." hissed Gyasa.

"He is not alone this time."

"Oh, you think king sparklypants is going to make things difficult?"

"That child is emperor of the reptiles for a good reason!"

"Shut it, Ogin. I'm buying you and your people the time you need to get away. You're in no position to complain." With that, he spread his wings and took off.

"You'll be death within a minute."

With Ogin's power to block Ryuma's scrying, their maneuver had gone perfect. That was, until they'd run across a river they were meant to pass to enter their lair. Sometime between now and then, the river had spontaneously changed directions, causing it to break through a weak angle and had flooded their lair.

Ryuma was on their trail now and they needed a diversion. Irritating as it was, Gyasa was their best chance, but she did not like leaving behind her allies ... even if she didn't like the allies in question. So with what little she could do, she covered his approach with her magic.

**· · · · · · ·**

The first they noticed was that one of the dragons pummeled into the jungle.

The second they noticed was the bright yellow blurb that shot past them, aiming for another dragon. This animal was warned though by the cries of the others and dodged. The blur passed by and came to a halt a distance from them, unfolding in a very familiar form as it did so.

Ryuma hardly believed his eyes. Gyasa? How? Nobody could resurrect this quickly! And why hadn't he noticed this during his scrying? Never mind. For whatever reason Gyasa had just attacked one of his dragons so he had to assume him to be an enemy.

"Gyasa, what is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

With a cocky smirk, Gyasa said :"I found someone who pays me better."

"You never got paid."

"Exactly."

"You traitor!" Ryuma hissed.

Gyasa laughed loudly. "Says the one who _married a human_!"

"- What insolence! -" Gyasa had never been one for tact, but that he actually dared to defy Ryuma so blatantly ... oh well, it didn't matter.

"Mashuranbo! Deal with him!"

Gyasa had the unfortunate tendency to make very melodramatic choices during battle, like choosing to stand right in front of Mashuranbo while transforming, instead of doing it a few miles away under cover. Off course, that one hadn't really mattered since Mashuranbo just stood around for two minutes doing nothing but smirking. Since Gyasa had proceeded to kick him to near dust, he would've won if he hadn't woken up Yakumo. With the Yakumo element missing, he had been certain he could handle this.

Unfortunately, another elements was missing. Black Mashuranbo simply didn't even give Gyasa the time to fold his wings into disc mode before plunging his sword into one of Gyasa's arms. Warping his other arm into a serpent beak he bit Mashuranbo and threw him off. The samurai charged at him promptly and once more aimed to get closer to Gyasa's head. Dark spell or not, he seemed to remember exactly where Gyasa's weak spot was.

But as Ogin had explained some time ago, Black Mashuranbo needed to be controlled specifically by Ryuma. Without Ryuma, it would just be a useless shell.

Warding off Mashuranbo's attacks without trying to particularly assault the samurai, Gyasa headed towards Ryuma. Mashuranbo would not let him easily, but the moment Gyasa had a second to spare, he merged his arms into a canon and fired.

One of Grandora's heads intercepted the attack. A cloud of blood and bone that Ryuma barely avoided washed down the dragon's back as the other heads roared in agony. Their motion no longer accounted for his presence and he nearly fell, yet managed to hold onto one of the horns and swing back on his feet.

Ryuma realized his greatest weakness was his own body. He had used up a fair deal of frost power in his little cleansing mission in the city and both Mashuranbo and Gyasa were airborne, yet he couldn't afford to fall.

"Very well then." he muttered irritably. "Mashuranbo, keep him back!"

Grandora was quickly killed and he took in its card. His body morphed into a much larger shape, mixing a humanoid form with that of the dragon, though it only had a single head. Stretching his wings wide, he remained in the air on his own power.

Mashuranbo drifted closer to him, stoic as ever and waiting for a new order now that the situation had changed. His voice no longer feminine, the draconic Ryuma said :"I want him down, but alive. He has a few things to explain me first. Drive him towards me."

Mashuranbo gave no acknowledgment and simply attacked Gyasa once more.

Gyasa turned into disc form and crashed past Mashuranbo just quick enough to avoid the blade, then right into Ryuma. However, he collided with the dragon's clawed hands and didn't do half as much damage as he had hoped. Yet the spinning motion caused him to bounce off, right through Ryuma's wing.

Ryuma crashed into the ground, bracing against it with his arms he managed to dampen most of the impact though. He had steered his fall towards a rocky area to avoid any trees from impaling him, quite successfully. Furiously now, he turned his gaze towards the sky. Undergoing this hideous transformation to obtain flight just go get wing damage was humilating to boot and Ryuma wouldn't tolerate it. The air started to get colder and he opened his mouth for a freeze blast.

Gyasa needed it not spelled out to understand the danger. Faced with a very ticked off draconic emperor _and_ Black Mashuranbo, Gyasa stood no chance. But he had another weapon, his beloved soul's poison. All he needed to do was get close enough, if he could get past both Mashuranbo and that ice attack ... this was going to hurt a lot.

He shot ahead, lost part of his wing to Mashuranbo and almost his other entirely to Ryuma's barely dodged ice daggers, but he made it till right above the dragon head and unleashed his magic.

Ryuma mentally scoffed. As if something like that could affect him!

Well, apparently it did.

Powerlessly, Ryuma's mind was pulled aware from reality and into the spirit fields.

It was like a dream, yet this wasn't similar to the astral plains he knew so well. It only irritated him at first, but it quickly became oppressive when he realized just where he was.

It was his ancestral castle, but much larger than it should be. Once it had been this size, though. Seeing his reflection in the icy walls, he found himself a toddler.

Surprise? Not really. It felt perfectly natural somehow. How had he gotten here anyway?

What an odd question, he had never left this place.

Ryuma walked the halls and sometimes played with particles and patterns of magical ice that he found, but nothing kept his interest for long. That was, until he found the council chamber. Vague sounds came from inside there and he slipped in through the half open door.

The chamber was empty, save for a small number of hunched figures at the center.

"Who are you?" he demanded. They didn't seem familiar and ... in fact, they didn't look like anything. They were shapeless shadows.

The moment his voice broke their attention, the forms looked up and were much larger than they could have been. Their number increased as well until they towered all around him.

Now they were closer, he started to recognize silhouettes. His parents, the court, lieutenants, servants and slaves. He sensed no warmth around them and realized they were corpses.

So why did they move?

"What do you want from me?"

A hand reached out and the muttering increased. Too close for his liking, he ran away, but where to?

Nothing ever truly felt safe in this palace. Still, he tried running to dark corners, cold areas ... it didn't work. He always landed right back in the center of the castle and whenever the shadows spotted him, they would follow him.

The more he ran, the more shadows there seemed to be until he could hardly pass any hall without them being there, grabbing at him. The forms he recognized as his parents appeared more and more and would always try to lead the others in an enclosing circle.

He ran until his only escape was the council chamber and nowhere to go from there. The mass relentlessly closed around him and the magical light of the walls diminished.

"Go away!" he failed at sounding commanding. "Go away now! How dare you disobey?"

So occupied he was in trying to get them to hear him, he didn't notice her until a small hand reached into his and gently started pulling him away. Turning, he looked into large lavender eyes.

The little form stood apart from the purple monotone all around him in very familiar colors : near white skin, light brown hair and minty green and white clothes. But she was much smaller than as she had been when he had first seen her, maybe six or seven years old. Yakumo.

The hands of his parents came closer but couldn't reach through her warm aura, nor could any of the others. The crowd moved aside as she began to lead him away, out of the castle, all the way to the top of the mountains. As they climbed, the crowd ran after them, but even though the children only walked carefully, the monsters couldn't keep up.

They stopped once there was no more to go. From so high it was the castle that appeared small, yet he also saw how large the world around was. The mountain was much higher than it should be, far above the clouds and seemingly touching the stars.

Low in the west the sun was setting, that was the direction that the girl faced.

"Why are you afraid of them?" she asked. "When they're so beautiful."

"Beautiful? They're hideous! Didn't you see them?"

"Off course I did. I saw them laughing and roaring and glaring, for they are afraid. When I fear, I cry and look for a way out, when you fear, you smirk and manipulate. And they, your people, act big and keep running around because they don't know what else to do."

"I'm not afraid!" he rebuked. "And they aren't-"

"Then why are you still holding my hand?" She was right. Ryuma quickly pulled his hand free.

"They are beautiful because they are alive. They have fears and hopes, hates, desires and even if you won't see it, they have compassion."

"What do I care?" he said indignantly. "They were stomping all over me! They-" He stopped abruptly as he heard his own voice talk about his fear, his pride wouldn't have any of that.

"You don't need saving from them, Lord Ryuma. They _need you _to save_ them_."

"Why would they?" he asked incredulously.

She looked at him with sad yet also scornful eyes.

"You are their emperor. It is your responsibility."

In Ryuma's mind, being an emperor meant that one was superior and no longer had obligations. No wonder the human society had never had a single ruler, with their silly ideas that defied survival of the fittest. That's how they had died out.

"That means I am their master, that I'm the strongest and they're just weaklings! Why would I bend to them? So they can tear me down? I'm not weak like that."

"But Ryuma, you _are _weak. You're a rabbit in snake skin, who can neither see nor hear through the thick scales yet lacks the thermal sight of one, so you don't see someone is hacking away the ground from beneath you."

"Don't try to mind screw me! That's my job! And you fail at it anyway."

She actually chuckled. "Speaking like that, so defensive. But that's admitting I'm right about this." she said as if she'd just concluded a debate and she looked to the west again.

"I stay strong like this, that's how this world works. You're the one who is weak. You can't survive in this world. If you always are irrationally forgiving Enterrans, you're going to meet your death that way. Yet you criticize my way of survival?" He realized a little too late he had indeed admitted he couldn't see all.

"Irrational forgiveness?" Her face grew hard. "No. I _have_ wished for your death in my darkest hours. You've abused me like a dispensable toy and you've humiliated me and you have no regard for even as much as my will, let alone who I am. That's the way you treat everyone. Forgiveness is no topic today."

"If you hate me so much, then why are you here?" he snapped, angrier than he should be over what actually was a victory. "Why bother taking me out of there?"

"It's for your people, they need you more than ever. Besides, if I would let you down, I'd be like you."

So far for victory.

"Well, if you finally figured out not to let everything go unforgiven, then why can't you still get it? Reptiles or birds, neither will welcome the humans."

"It's just the way I am. Besides, I haven't taken you out of _anything_." she said and looked at him once more. "No, I took you deeper into your fear : I told you the things you don't want to hear, especially not from me."

The sky froze over and the horizon broke away. They were in the ice castle again, the looming shadows all over them. Maybe they had been there the entire time, actually. The thought that they might have heard everything he had just said frightened Ryuma more than he wanted to admit and it wasn't just his pride.

"Do you notice how they don't attack you? They don't do anything at all, do they?" Yakumo asked. "They'll follow you if you ask them to. But you never asked them to, so off course they only obey out of fear."

She stepped before him and placed her hands over his eyes, gently closing them. Panicked he reached up, pulling away her hands. He tried to glare at her but the shadows seemed closer, he felt like he had to keep his eyes on them lest they strike from behind. When he looked at the fearless Yakumo again, she was as tall as she was in reality while his form remained that of a child.

Knelt before him, she whispered : "Don't be afraid now." Her hands came forward again, covering his eyes again. He couldn't stop her this time.

Then he saw something, or maybe perceived in some other way. Yakumo was full of hatred.

Hatred over needless suffering, over injustice, over unfairness, over prejudice, over lies and over manipulation. This hatred was the exact same thing as the compassion that drove her forward. She didn't seem that different for a moment, but he wouldn't let that thought continue.

Within her darkness there was warmth too, a soothing sort of safety. As he became calmer and calmer, he noticed something. The threatening forms ... he didn't hear them. There was only the sound of many small creatures, ... smaller than him. Fearful whispers, perhaps even pleading?

Was _she _doing this? Had it been like this all along?

When Yakumo removed her hands, he was at eye level with her again, like her he was knelt down. Looking around only one looming shadow remained, visible through the veil of artificial sleep. Standing up and turning around, he reached for his sword.

At this moment in reality, Ryuma's eyes opened. Within a split second, the dragon's jaws closed around Gyasa. Ryuma felt the blood between his teeth, Grandora's instincts momentarily took over. He reared his head and then tore past Gyasa against the nearest rock wall. The crack of breaking bones and scales reached his ears and he grinned widely, showing already bloodied fangs.

When he spat out Gyasa, the snake warrior was covered in blue blood and twitching uncontrollably.

In his rage, he considered carding Gyasa and revive him later, but clarity soon returned. The hundreds of snakes he had used to achieve this transformation would be pesky to carry along and Ryuma wanted to control _all _of Gyasa's power. Besides, this way Gyasa would suffer a lot longer from his broken body and it would save so much energy than having to revive him later. So he just opened his mouth and froze Gyasa, but not enough to numb any pain.

"You have no business messing with my mind and I'm going to make sure you understand that." He picked up Gyasa and looked around for his followers.

The ministers and the cards were nearby away, waiting along with the other dragons.

But, why was Mashuranbo gone _again_?

**· · · · · · ·**

Yakumo slumped back against the seat within Hakuba, breathing heavily.

"He's alright now." she whispered in reply to Unga's concerned expression.

"And you?"

"I'm okay."

She wasn't so sure of that, actually.

They were on their way to the area Lucifen would most likely be attacking, carrying with them a map with potential other locations she might strike. While attempting to contact Ryuma, they had found him in a locked state. Yakumo had instinctively employed that strange power of hers to break through it and it had cost her a lot of energy. But Ryuma had survived.

She smiled ruefully. Fate seemed to enjoy all too much inventing various sorts of suffering for her.

**· · · · · · ·**

**Author's Note **:_ LOL at how the chapters that didn't contain Ryuma x Yakumo scenes got no reviews. Anyway, you may have noticed that this chapter takes more than a few jabs at stupidities of the anime. At first I considered ignoring the problems, but then I decided to actually try to incorporate it, so there is a reason I'm bringing them up here, but that's for much later.  
_


	8. Info Dump

**· · · · · · ·**

Seeing as Lucifen she was partially dependent on the weather, her next target most likely shot would be a megalopolis named Aagrer. In reptile terms, a megalopolis didn't necessarily involve the massive cities as it meant in the human world, especially since many of the wilder reptile Enterrans lived underground and used scent rather than wall to mark their home. Only the core would be consisting of solid buildings, such was the case in Aagrer as well. It would offer no usable fortress, but it would give the birds government of a large chunk of the continent and could serve as a portal for them, not to mention the resources it would provide.

Too bad it was at the opposite direction of where Ryuma had gone off to, giving the birds plenty of time to create a stronghold themselves.

Aside from intercepting Gyasa's mental assault on Ryuma, little had happened during their journey. Yakumo was content with having Hakuba pose a riddle or puzzle to drive away time, but Unga clearly wasn't used to simply going places and not doing anything in the meantime. Yakumo wondered whether she had left the castle before, though right now they were in flight and she could not ask.

Eventually they took a break near a small spring in the middle of the jungle. While she tried to keep the kittens close, Yakumo decided to ask her question.

"Off course, did you think I was born there?"

"Well, no, I was just curious. Where did you live before?"

"None of your business."

"And you won't tell me then either how you got into Ryuma's service?"

"I worked for his parents first, naturally. Nothing to it." she grumbled, doing her best to indicate she had no interest in a conversation. Yakumo's eyes lingered on her, studying, as she remembered that curious detail from Ryuma's nightmare landscape : there had been no Unga.

Before she could pay any further thought on it, Hakuba called for her attention. Unga's dragon also looked up to a certain rustle in the nearby bushes. Across the small meadow something approached rapidly.

Yet, the dragon lowered its head again and continued drinking from the spring, it smelled no predator. And indeed what appeared was no predator, it wasn't even an Enterran. Only humanoid in its most basic form, it appeared like a large chunk of metal with so here and there an almost toy-like case approached, yet most of this armor was missing or burned. An stoic and unsettling humanoid face dangled from where the frame of a head remained.

Unga immediately snapped her fingers and the dragon stood up in a battle pose, ready to freeze whatever it would be told to. But Yakumo was quicker than Unga and stood between the beast and the robot.

"Who are you?" she called out.

"Yakumo, ste-"

"No, wait, let's see what it wants! Please!"

"It could be an emissary, you fool. We don't have time for this." But curiosity did get the better of her now, just enough to give some time.

The robot approached Yakumo and bowed to her.

"Goddess, I am an emissary of King Nipper of the robots. I have come to invite you to visit him, in order to help you reach Center."

"Sounds like a trap!" Unga immediately said.

Yakumo stepped a little aside to look at something Hakuba's monitor displayed. The robot also responded, walking along to keep her between it and the dragon.

"It will be alright." she smiled. "Please, lead the way!" she then told the robot, after which she stepped into Hakuba and let him lower the hood of the driver compartment.

as she stepped in and let Hakuba lower the hood of the driver compartment.

"You're not going to go anywhere Lord Ryuma doesn't want you to go! Stay here!"

But the human still smiled as if the crown wasn't inflicting any pain. Hakuba took off and left Unga rather confused as to why her command had not reached the crown.

True, they'd never met any sonic-powered Enterrans, but Hakuba had protective shields against more than just energetic attacks.

Having little other choice, Unga commanded her dragon to follow along. The robot had its own hover machine and went ahead quite fast, never pausing.

Only by the time evening started to fall did the robot land.

They had reached the edge of the rainforest, before them was a wide plain on which numerous herds of dinosaurs grazed and to the west was an immense lake. While mostly shadows in this time of the day, their sounds were still lively.

"Woah, they're huge!" Sen shouted as he pressed his little nose against the glass. "Gigantic!" Rei added, trying to sound louder than his sibling. The moment Hakuba opened his doors, they jumped out.

The robot meanwhile abandoned his hovercraft and walked away from them, then turned back to face them. And then it just collapsed into pieces.

"Here we have the last human roaming the world." hissed a soft voice, coming from a nearby rock formation.

The kittens promptly forget the dinosaurs and ran back to Hakuba, but Yakumo remained calm as from all directions Enterrans popped up. Some had hidden in holes under the ground, covered with fake earth layers, other appeared from the undergrowth. Tall and small Enterrans, all strangers and armed to the teeth.

"See! Trap!"

"No Unga, we arrived exactly where we should be." Yakumo said happily.

The Enterrans all mutely surrounded them, yet made no advanced and yelled no threats, nor did anyone break into long and pointless monologues.

"Hakuba immediately noticed the robot was not active. Sago and Kutal once told me that when Gyasa kidnapped me, they had fought two golems formed from books and kitchen utensils. This must have been Gyasa's magic. And wasn't it Gyasa whom I just intercepted from driving Ryuma out of his mind?"

Unga glared at her. "So you willingly walked right into a trap?"

"They are not our enemy."

"Wars can have more than two sides, you know."

"Indeed, and that will make things needlessly complicated. I want to see whether we can simplify things a little."

"You're crazy."

Yakumo brushed her hand past the crown on her head and looked Unga straight in the eyes, not with anger but very serious. "It seems to me everyone is crazy, and I'm willing to take this chance to see whether these rebels are less crazy than the one who crowned me with _this_."

Then she stepped forward and called out :"If possible, I would like to speak to your leader."

"That would be me." said the same voice that had spoken before. Its owner curled forward, appearing from the long shadows of her soldiers.

She lacked the bright artificial coloration of most Enterrans, Yakumo noticed immediately. Her human top was brown skinned and black-haired while her long snake tail was a collection of copper and browns that matched the sunset. Indeed, this Enterran was more like the mythical Naga of India than an actual engineered creature.

"Yakumo Shinzo, welcome into my circle. My name is Ogin, I presume you understand who me and my followers are." she hissed.

"I do."

Humans would always associate a hiss with malicious intent, but she had long since learned to hear with Enterrans ears. For them, a different aerial outtake when speaking wasn't necessarily intended as a threat.

Ogin made a clicking noise and several warriors moved forward. Instinctively Yakumo backed closed to Hakuba, but they weren't headed for her.

One of them grabbed the leashes of the dragon, another took Unga at her shoulder. The dragon reared up and wanted to attack, but several large Enterrans tackled its thin membrane wings. A hollow boned beast stood little chance against several high-weight warriors, they had it under control within less than a minute.

Unga stood by the whole time with clenched fists and glared all around her, but said no more. Once the dragon was calm, Ogin ordered : "Take it into the lair! Take Ryuma's witch as well. Kaid, these children too." The last she spoke to a tall but slender lizard type.

"Wait!" Yakumo started. "Why them? I understand why you want to restraint Unga, but they are harmless! Let them stay with me."

"Worry not for them, they will be alright. I would gain nothing from harming them." Ogin assured her.

The one named Kaid approached the children by kneeling down and introducing himself, but they climbed into Hakuba and hid behind the seats. They hadn't forgotten the reptile that had threatened to eat them.

But relief washed over Yakumo's face, what little she had learned to read of reptile expressions told her this was someone who liked children : he was a little hurt they wouldn't trust him. She walked to Hakuba and leaned into the compartment.

"Kids, please be brave. If you go along, nothing bad will happen and I'm sure we'll meet each other soon. Alright?"

Rei and Sen exchanged glances and decided they needed to be brave once more, but Sanju was a little more hesitant, nor only by fear but also concern for Yakumo.

"How do you know you can trust them?"

"Cause I've seen a little of Gyasa's memories earlier. They didn't like him very much. Please, come now?"

With a little more certainty, they crawled back over the chair. Yakumo brought them to Kaid and handed them into his long arms. He nodded and then backed off, she could hear him speak softly to them. Now, save for Hakuba, she was alone with the rebels.

The sun's last rays made it difficult for her to see much. Only the Naga before her stood out clear enough to see in the eyes, who waited patiently.

"You took quite a risk, following that robot," Ogin said, her voice barely coming over the rumor of the jungle.

"I don't think Lucifen would send a robot that would fall into the Uncanny Valley as that one did. Furthermore, Hakuba noticed it was not wired properly, it should not be active." Yakumo said, nodding once to the busted robot.

"Ah, yes. We made do with what little we could gather from remnants of Lucifen's armies. It's broken, obviously, I used my puppet magic to control it."

"_Your _magic?"

"Yes, why?" Ogin asked, but it hit her quickly. "Oh, I think I understand what you mean. No, I was not involved with what Gyasa did to you. At that time, he and I were not allied yet. But he is a relative of mine, we master similar magic."

Yakumo nodded again. "I already wondered about why he was back. How did you persuade him?"

"I resurrected him and made sure he knew I had messed with his meridians to the point where I can revoke his life whenever I feel like it." she said with a sardonic smirk. "He is such a disaster, he leaves me no other choice. But I digress. Let us proceed to business. We want the help of the robots against the birds. We expect them to consider your survival a priority, as they were created to protect the humans."

"Wonderful!" Yakumo clapped her hands together. "Because I came here hoping you would be willing to unite forces with us."

"Oh, hold it. I have no intent to cooperate with Ryuma."

"But you wish to cooperate with the robots, right? Let me deal with Ryuma." Yakumo offered.

"I'm not quite sure to what extend you are capable of doing that." Ogin said with a narrow eyed look.

"Please don't make me a tool for trade. I want to help!"

"I know. I've had a look at what was going on in the castle in Ryuma's absence. That is why I took the risk you invite you here. I hoped you will help us with the robots, but I never meant to get involved with that _brat_."

"You won't have to. I'll take that responsibility."

An smile started to play on Ogin's face. "Well, this is almost suspiciously easy. Should I trust you, coming here and wanting to cooperate just like that?"

"If you know of my journey, shouldn't you already know the answer to that?"

The smiled broke into a short, earnest laughter, then she moved forward and held out a hand.

"Legends from long ago tell us how the devilish humans will greet by taking each others hands. Is it true?"

"For some cultures." Yakumo said with a smile. She stepped forward and took the naga's hand.

"I believe we will have a contract. Consider yourself no prisoner of us."

**· · · · · · ·**

From there on Ogin led Yakumo into a set of artificial caves. The place was a total mess, full of useless equipment and dirt. One of the rebels explained they had forsaken this hideout some time ago, but it was the nearest they could occupy now that the river had claimed their intended base.

Curious eyes were all over them, it made Yakumo a little uneasy. As a human, attention was bad news. Some indeed whispered about whether it was safe to bring her in here, but just as much whispered about how safe it was to bring Ryuma's witch along, whom passed this same entrance shortly ago.

Yet, all were respectful of Ogin's decisions and moved aside for her and anyone she invited in her ring.

"I will see whether we can do something about that dreadful thing on your head." Ogin said as she fell back a little, so she moved at Yakumo's side. "Preferably before Ryuma tracks you through it."

"I don't think he knows I went out, but he will remember I linked to his mind and there's a great chance he will check in on me. He doesn't need the crown for that, in fact."

"Hm ... that might be a problem. Can you stop him?"

"I will try. Lady Ogin, ..." Her sentence broke off, unsure whether she wanted to know right now. But reason won out. "... you said I was the last to roam this world... does Center or Shinzo, does it exist?"

The naga closed her eyes for a moment and said : "I have never found anything on the face of the earth that indicates there are humans other than you. But don't despair, this might simply mean they have astral magic that keeps them hidden, like I have hidden my people."

They reached the center of the caves, where Ogin had a magic pool much like Unga's cauldron, her mirror to the world. Here she sent her escorts to return to their various tasks.

Remaining alone with Yakumo, she curled up and relaxed, pointing Yakumo to take a nearby seat at the edge of the pool. Yakumo did so and looked into the water, but it didn't even cast back her reflection, only a dim blue light.

"At this moment, we have no way to contact the robots." Ogin started. "Before we do, there are a few things you should know in any case."

"Please tell me what I need to know, I'm listening."

"What do you know of Mashuranbo?"

"He appears when Sago and Kutal merge into Mashura. Ryuma said he was the god of destruction, but I don't believe that."

Ogin closed her eyes again, seeming to consider for a moment.

Then she said : "I hate to be the messenger, but Ryuma was not lying. Mashuranbo was the one responsible for the war. I don't know what would have happened if it weren't for him, but he started it all by playing into the hatred the Enterrans felt over their slavery."

With her words, the water of the pool came alive and started to show images. Reflections of the past, the war. She saw herself so now and then and her father. Ogin let her watch for a while, almost curious at the tears that appeared in Yakumo's eyes. Reptiles could not cry, after all.

"Mashuranbo's followers were in a minority, but the tide turned once a strange meteorite struck our planet. It ejected two energy rays. A purple one, which sought out Mashuranbo and granted him the power he needed to win the war. On the other hand, the golden one sought out the baby daughter of the creator of the En-cards, that was you. This occurred about five, six years before the war ended, when you were placed in cold sleep."

Accompanying this were images of Mashuranbo, crystal clear : an Enterran who like a beautiful young human of maybe about 20 years, save for his inhumanly purple hair. Ruthlessly he led his people against the humans, who struck back even harder, a perpetual spiral of violence.

This all had to sink in for a moment. Yakumo did recall hearing that Mashuranbo had existed before, but ...

"How? How did he end up in my three friends?"

"I presume they were chosen by the three gems of Mashuranbo and felt compelled to seek you out, drawn in by the fourth gem you have there." The naga pointed at the gem on her chest, embedded into her clothing.

That explained quite a few things, like why a humanoid fire Enterran, a humanoid water Enterran and a beast Earth Enterran all had ended up in North America, when their respective domains were elsewhere and humanoids never even came that far. Yakumo had wondered about this coincidence earlier, but this raised new questions.

"Why would they be drawn to my gem?"

"Again, I can only guess that they were altered after they came into contact with your power. Previously ... I think something else was their master."

"Came in contact... what exactly happened? _How _did Mashuranbo end up divided over those gems?"

"Are you ready for this?"

Yakumo nodded, being absolutely sure she could handle any sort of gruesomeness or slaughter. Mashuranbo did not seem to physically age, so he probably hadn't died of old age.

"You killed him."

New images appeared, a red room that she recognized well. Here she had seen her father for the last time. Mashuranbo now entered it and approached her, raising his sword to kill. And then Yakumo saw herself, a sleeping seven year old girl. Or maybe not, for that girl opened her eyes and the expression on her face was empty, her eyes blind with a sharp green light.

"It was an act of instinctive self-defense. The machines that kept you in cryogenic sleep activated your powers when he found you. They stagnated Mashuranbo and farther I could not see. A innerspace was created for a split second, the next moment he disintegrated and the three gems broke out of him, carrying his form divided over them."

Yakumo's heartbeat became audible in her ears. Her father had brought her into that sleep to bring peace to the world, right? Yet he seemed to have known she had this sort of power and had programmed Hakuba to awaken it.

She reached to touch the gem on her chest, which glowed softly under her touch. This very same power she used to control the serpents of the dress, it was hers to command even without machines, but ...

"I killed someone?" An alien sound to her, Yakumo who could kill. The devil human was a danger after all.

"Yes, you have. Not just someone, you killed the king of Enterrans. How ironic that he would surface as your guardian, isn't it?"

"Once, I killed Mashuranbo." No, the sound definitely wasn't growing on her.

"What I know is that it was able to paralyze him and that it's the cause of his death. I cannot see what occurred during this, I only know two names : _Manjusri _and_ Yama. _From that point forth Mashuranbo no longer existed, until he surfaced through Mashura. Do you know these names?"

Yakumo absently shook her head. Ogin sighed and raised her head to look at Hakuba, who ever loyally was parked behind Yakumo.

"Now, speaking of machines ... You there, hidden horse, you should be aware of all this. Why haven't you told her anything?" Ogin demanded.

"I was programmed to not reveal this until the time was ripe."

"Ripening time? What a pathetic excuse! You should have told her everything as soon as possible so she could begin to practice her powers! For goodness sake, she's been in life danger from the start and the fate of her species depends on her! The time was ripe the moment she woke up!"

"I cannot tell you why I have been programmed as I am."

"Liar. I don't know _what _you are, but you aren't a robot to begin with. You weren't programmed to do anything, were you?"

No reply. Ogin's shoulders dropped a little.

"Yakumo, will you allow me to investigate Hakuba?"

The human had listened to the exchange quietly as the last certainty of her quest was torn away. The world was ever-changing, but now Yakumo found it had never been what she had believed it once was.

"Yes, you may investigate him."

"Yakumo, I object. I do not trust this person."

"Nothing will happen to him, right?"

"I merely intend to scry him." Ogin assured her. "I'll give you a room, I figure you'll need some time to think things over. I'll call you once I found a way to remove that crown or established contact with the robots."

"Alright. Thank you for your help." she said. Standing up, she wished Ogin goodnight and left the room, ordering Hakuba to remain. Outside someone waited for her as escort.

She met the kittens soon, any worry indeed was wasted : they were fine and currently having dinner. Yakumo set aside her concerns and joined them, then remained till they were ready for bed. She again left them in Kaid's care, and asked for where she would sleep. She was brought to a simple room with a door, given a few directions if she needed anything, then she went to bed.

Once alone, a thousand thoughts welled up in her mind, little things ...

One day, Mashura had been so eager to rejoin her, then with Kiri, he simply left her because she did not reply. He had come back, but ... why hadn't Sago and Kutal thought differently than Mashura? It was as if they had acted as a single person as they left, while in the belief she was about to walk into a slave camp where humans were imprisoned and where a death sentence was on her head.

_Over my silence, over my doubt, they considered just letting me walk to my death._

Perhaps that had been Mashuranbo. Or had that been their true nature, while their protectiveness of her was only guided by those three mystical gems? She hoped for the first.

Hakuba she could not trust either. This was absolutely vital, lives depended on it, yet he had not told her she had this power and she had not been able to develop them. Why would he deliberately keep it from her that she had enough power to defend herself?

"Father, what is my purpose?" she whispered.

Off course he would not answer. He was long gone, probably had died in quite a dreadful manner. After all, he has placed her in cryogenic sleep to help her survive, because they could not reach Center ... but perhaps that was a lie too.

She turned over in her bed, but tranquility had long eluded her and made no exception for this night. Now it was not only that crown and its relentless grip on her mind, it was the truth that she did not know, but desperately wanted.

Yet, she wasn't as upset as she felt she should have been. That she may have killed this Mashuranbo left her confused but cold, as did that he now was part of her friends. At most, she only wondered how things had gotten to be this way.

Eventually she stood up to get a bit of water. The room was carved out of rock, technically a cave, and was devoid of any of the luxury she had known in Ryuma's castle. She liked it better this way, though it also reminded her of the times she had hidden in bunkers underground. Her father had been at her side always, so she had never really hated it.

She passed a few of the rebels on the way to the water, who were a little weary, but all greeted her in some way. One by nodding their head, another a grunt, one even difficulty tried to imitate a smile with reptile lips. The were several underground springs here, though none carried as much magic as the central one did. She was informed by one of the rebels that the water was the reason they had built here, and also the reason they'd abandoned it : the water seemed alive and was prone to do strange things.

Yakumo didn't return to her chamber for a while, because one conversation led to another. Many here lacked the prejudice against humans, Ogin's rational look at things reflected in her subordinates. Unlike the court of Ryuma, unlike anywhere before, she didn't need to fight to be accepted, she didn't need to prove it. They were much like her, only wanting a world without war.

Stories were told of their origins, they'd suffered on whims of Ryuma, others had grudges over the poor border control that sometimes let insects or phantoms or birds pass. Then others were simply victim of the "right of the strong", for there was no justice system beyond whatever the province lords or Ryuma might decide. So hours passed deep into the night and Yakumo found ears for her own story too. It somehow gave her hope. On an intellectual level, she'd never given up hope, but maybe it had been a while since she'd properly felt it.

Off course, this was Enterra. The world was still out for her blood. Whenever she felt at peace, it would be taken away soon, it just worked that way apparently.

A dull tremor came through the walls accompanied by the sound of an collapsing rock. Her company promptly fell silent.

"They're still lowering the weapon into the caves. Maybe something fell?" someone suggested. But they knew the larger parts had been lowered already.

"Do you smell that? Who is that?" another asked.

This was enough for Yakumo. Wasting no time, she got up and ran towards the origin of the sound. More than a few Enterrans passed her in the opposite direction, all fleeing, some carrying wounded along. She only had to head to where the blood and dust became thicker.

The disaster scene was one of the storage halls of their cannon. Where once had been a small opening in the cave ceiling now was a large cap. Obscuring dust was all over the place and slowly covered the massive pieces of metal. Carefully she walked forward, finding corpses and cards all around her.

Nobody and nothing stirred. Only from the outside came the sounds of the rainforest, undisturbed by the collapsing cave.

As the dust settled, Yakumo saw one figure still standing, positioned on one of the tallest piles of rubble.

A familiar form clad in black armor and with stark blue hair where once had been deep purple. His skin was still white as ever and carrying the markings across his face, but that face was no longer emotionless. A wicked smirk was drawn across it and his eyes were focused sharply on Yakumo, seeming ... entertained?

"There you are." he said once he knew she could see him clearly.

It was the same effeminate voice he had always had, yet where once its tone had been only vaguely tinted by Mashura's confidence, it now carried something else entirely.

"You're awake?"

"Obviously." he said. "Should you be surprised? His mistake was removing me too far from my lovely binds. And now he's not here to tie things back up."

He flicked his sword in his hand and jumped down the rubble, starting towards her.

Yakumo pushed her fear back and remained where she was. If she turned her back now, he might lost interest in speaking to her and attack right away. She had more of a chance if she could strike when he was closer, he wouldn't know what she currently could do.

"Why did you destroy my kind?" she asked with a forced steady voice.

Mashuranbo stopped a few meters before her.

"Felt like ruling the world and they gave me the perfect excuse to unite my kin." he casually said.

She rapidly started to hate that cocky smirk. This soul had killed all of mankind.

And she had killed him.

"_You _I will _not forgive_." she said.

**· · · · · · ·**


	9. Tranquil Fury

**· · · · · · ·**

"As if I'd care." he said with deliberate nonchalance.

But she didn't reply to the invitation to go on a hero motivation rant, he continued : "I suppose you are awake for the same reason as I am. That hag's power is waning. Do you realize what that means?"

"Well?"

"Just that we're going to take off where we parted ways last time."

He flicked his sword and with a few quick steps he had reached her. She evaded in the nick of time, tried to duck past him but he kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying against the nearest wall. She screamed as she collided, couldn't even get up before he reached her again. But her serpents could. On reflex they emerged from the dress and caught the descending blade.

"Interesting, but interesting always means _delay_." he said irritably.

The sword charged with energy and Yakumo felt a hollow sort of pain through the snakes, as they zapped away her energy to continue holding back the attack, she didn't know how to give them more energy. When she tried crawling up she was kicked again. He hit her in the neck and her head slammed against the wall, at the same moment he got his sword free and lifted it for a second strike. Yakumo opened her eyes, forced by some strange instinct, and two rays of green light caught Mashuranbo. He paralyzed and immediately the snakes threw him away.

He stumbled back, barely regaining control over his muscles before falling over.

She heard him curse under his breath, but he didn't attack anymore.

"So you can do that dirty trick without your machine?" He glared at her, seemed to consider for a moment, and then he turned and left.

"I'll be back in a moment, don't die without me."

Yakumo breathed in and out for what seemed like a long time, but was only a few seconds. A few puzzle pieces fell together and she realized he only left her because he had another, more important victim. Unga, the source of the black card's magic.

She tried to stand up but her injured leg didn't cooperate immediately; she still wasn't over the shock against her back.

There hadn't been much physical pain in her short life, usually her friends had protected her, Mashura, Sago, Kutal ... who were now locked in Mashuranbo. She had to protect them too, but she was no warrior, just a girl with some vague, unexplored power. So often she had been completely helpless, always her attempts to resolve things in peace had been useless, nobody wanted to ...

The shell of her ideals alone never had protected her, no matter how much she wanted to believe in it.

And so the last human was pushed over the edge, very quietly.

**· · · · · · ·**

The markings on his face strung like ice and he reached up in a futile attempt to brush them off.

All around him were random reptile and amphibian Enterrans and he vaguely recalled that brat saying something about rebels. He didn't care, all he wanted was to find that witch and get rid of the chain on his wall. After that, he was going to do another selective purge.

Under normal circumstances Mashuranbo would have been able to simply divine the location of the sorceress, but the shelter was densely and skillfully shielded, it dulled any of his scrying magic. He had to search for her the old fashioned way and he had to do so quickly before Ryuma arrived. As long as that black card within him existed, Ryuma had some measure of control over him and he had no intention of being forced back into that freezing abyss again.

Deep within his own inferno he still heard the cries of those three Enterrans, felt the binding force of the ancient gems ... the very black card that was supposed to bind him was the loophole that allowed him to escape. For that reason he hoped that the hag's loyalty to Ryuma extended only as far as her survival was concerned; he needed her to undo the magic in a way that preserved that loophole.

In the twenty-six years of his life, the only time he had ever needed anything from anyone had been the five years before his war started. Now he was back right at that point and he didn't like that very much.

Tunnel, tunnel, hall, random soon-to-be-bloody-splatters-on-the-wall, more tunnels ... Where was that blasted witch?

He raced through the entire labyrinth of maze until he reached an exit. Here he found several tracks, all scattered into the forest around. He followed a few that he suspected were the witch, but only found similarly sized, non-magical Enterrans at the end of those trails. They were now bleeding to death slowly, because it had annoyed him.

With little other choice, Mashuranbo decided to fly high, above the astral barrier. It would place him at risk for being found by Ryuma, so he only did so shortly.

It was enough.

They were down in some random part of the forest, moving rapidly. He spotted a herd of bipedal dinosaurs in their direction that looked wild at first, but were too calm under the circumstances. Transport, eh?

He approached this herd and landed in their midst. They were startled by him, but he knew the art of calming beasts. With a few phony words and the knowledge of how to appease this particular species, he got them to tolerate his presence. Some animals had the annoying tendency to feel whether someone loved them, these beasts fortunately weren't amongst them. Faking to care for something could be quite useful, especially when one wished to ambush a scrying creature that probably would fail to scry their own transport.

Soon, a small group of unsuspecting rebels arrived and the witch was with them.

Mashuranbo decided to welcome them by blowing of the dinosaurs, which was rapidly achieved with a simple sphere of energy emanating from himself. The typical shocked faces and screaming followed right after, nothing new. He unsheathed his sword and jumped forward.

The witch's eyes grew wide and her legs were too slow to move her to safety. Victory in reach, he was about to slash her in half when a white robot shot from the forest. It raised a protective barrier right after pushing Unga out of the way and Mashuranbo's sword only managed to slash over her back.

_Hakuba_, a distant memory told him.

The robot's side door opened, and out stepped Yakumo.

And there she was in the way _yet again_.

The nerve she had. First she killed him, as a toddler nonetheless and right before the completion of his purge, then she came back as a teen and _used him as her guardian_. And now she worked so very hard to deny him freedom.

Mashuranbo stayed put and watched as she helped the witch stand up. This time, he had no smirks to spare. That horrible little thing had probably informed the rebels about Unga's role, if they'd get away with Unga now, he might not find her at all. A large gap in the astral field like this base was still possible to detect from short distance, but a small personal shield? Not going to happen.

Therefore, it was now apparent that Yakumo also was a primary obstacle in his way. Not that she hadn't already been on his death list simply due to being a human.

"Lady Ogin, take Unga away, please." Yakumo bid a nagini, who just nodded and called one of her rebels to carry the witch. The robot went with them, after exchanging a few words with the girl. Then he was alone on the small field with her.

Yakumo calmly straightened her back and glanced over her shoulder, silver serpents waved around her in a steady motion.

"What is wrong with you? You'll be free if she dies, and you could have fled. I would have dealt with that brat, and you would have had a chance to survive."

"No, that would only delay my death, and make that of my friends come sooner." she whispered with a sudden inhuman, deep echo.

As soon as that echo faded, she turned into a pure black shadow with glowing white eyes. Raw energy waved off of her like the wind, carrying along a golden light. The gem on her chest blazed alight and her dress grew dozens of snake heads, all headed towards him.

Well, _this _was new.

With only a silhouette before him, Mashuranbo couldn't tell which of the snakes were close and which were far. He tried cutting them away, but even what he hit simply regrew as if they were solid smoke. Like leeches they latched onto him, most onto his arms. Others curled around his sword and rip to take it away. In the middle of the tangle of beasts he saw the human silhouette approach. Very soon he'd be in reach of her paralyzing green magic. On top of that she was tearing at his meridians, intent on carding him ... no, he wasn't going to lose this chance.

Frantically he slashed the sword, but it was like fighting a clutter of growing wires. A line of blood ran into his eyes, further troubling his sight. Then she got his sword away when one of the snakes went into his sword arm and started biting away at his tendons.

This was what happened when one pushed the kindhearted too far. He had seen it on some before and had proceeded to kill them anyway, but none of those people had possessed the mother gem of the three that gave him power.

But Mashuranbo still had his own rage. With nothing to lose, he charged forward through the clutter and used his remaining arm to grab Yakumo's head, cover her eyes before she could use that last trick. The momentum of his jump pulled her with him to the ground, but he didn't let go of her.

Curling his fingers together, he slowly started crushing her skull. The snakes bit deep into his arms, legs and back. But he wouldn't let go and bashed her head against a nearby rock twice, three times ... Yet she still wouldn't scream like she should, as an animal afraid to die. Pitch black hands started to clutch at his arms, but unlike the snakes they were still as weak as a human ought to be.

The snakes grew weaker but still tried to disable his other arm and they were biting through. He considered invoking Mashura's fire to drive them off and burn Yakumo in the process. But before he could decide whether to take that risk, another snake crawled up.

This one came from behind, was solid and large enough to curled around his waist and sling him away. He landed on his feet and spun around at once.

That nagini had returned, meaning the witch couldn't be hidden very far. He still had a chance.

Or maybe not.

He saw the blue claw swoop in a second before he got rammed into the ground.

Ryuma filled his claw with energy and electrocuted Mashuranbo, giving him the edge he needed to regain control of the black card.

Mashuranbo didn't move when the dragon withdrew his claw, but his brown eyes remained open.

**· · · · · · ·**

Yakumo was fairly sure she hadn't lost consciousness, but the here and now was kind of dissociative. The clearest she was aware of were her heavy limbs, her pounding head and a few bleeding wounds. But that wasn't the worst. Her entire body felt like it was set afire. It was the energy of the meteorite slowly eating away at her. Only after repeated attempts did she manage to call it back into the gem, to which it slowly obliged.

What remained was the drained shell of a human, weak again. The fury was gone and made way for a calmness that seemed to be a long pause between now and the next time ...

She was desperate for sleep, but sadly recalled there had been no peaceful sleep in a long time. The return of her senses further reminded her of her current position. Somewhere in a jungle on the ground and still alive.

The first she noticed was the blue sky where previously, there had been the foliage of the jungle.

She turned her head a little and saw him.

Even though she had never see this particular form and her vision was still blurry, she knew it was Ryuma. He seemed to have absorbed Grandora, and now he was ... considerably louder.

What he said she couldn't understand, all sound was distorted. Whom was he having a conversation with? She hoped it wasn't Ogin, if she had gotten away ... no, this voice was softer and older. Unga? Thanks goodness, she was alright then.

A third voice joined in, much closer and apparently taking to her. The jumble persisted and eventually took a familiar form.

"Sanju?" she whispered.

"Are you alright?" asked another voice. This she recognized too, Vertigo, one of the ministers.

"I'm ... " She was used to saying she was fine, so others wouldn't worry. But considering how ridiculous that would be right now, she changed her standard answer. "... terrible."

"The lord isn't very happy with this stunt. I wish you hadn't come here, he already is acting erratic." the minister whispered angrily.

"We tried to ... we know where the next invasion will be ..." Yakumo said apologetically.

"I've heard. But I doubt our lord will do something useful with that information. He is only angry now."

Yakumo was surprised that the minister dared to speak so openly with Ryuma only a short distance away. What was up?

"I'll go get you some water. You're going to need your voice once he starts interrogating you." The minister stood up and walked away.

"Thank you." Yakumo whispered, but it was probably lost.

"Yakumo, is he going to hurt you too?" Rei or Sen asked.

"I don't know ... You should have gone with Ogin."

"No, we want to stay with you! Otherwise you've got nobody to look after you!" Sanju said.

"Yeah, uncle Kutal isn't around so we have to do it in his stead!"

Yakumo raised a feeble hand and petted the kittens on the head. "You're right, I'd be lonely without you."

Now she was becoming clearer in the head, she also started to hear the more distant sounds in a coherent fashion. Once Vertigo returned and helped her sit up to drink, she could get a better look of the situation.

Ryuma had felled a few trees while landing and looked quite damaged, either by the landing or the fight against Gyasa. There were several large dragons nearby as well, one of whom carried a large make-shift bag filled with something unknown. She saw three of the ministers, but one was missing.

The serpent emperor himself was the very antithesis of what he usually appeared as : giant, beastial and heavy-built, with more of Grandora than Ryuma. With nothing of the graceful human form left, she thought he looked a lot more honest.

Yet it was hard to read his face in this form, perhaps only because she had no experience with reading reptile expressions. She could only imagine what his mood right now was, but she was certain it wasn't going to pass easily.

"Yakumo, what are they doing?" Sanju asked as she followed Yakumo's gaze.

"Reprogramming Mashuranbo." Vertigo said as she reappeared. She carried a small bowl with her. Yakumo took it with two shaking hands and drank it empty. It washes away some of the blood taste in her mouth, and her eyes became a little clearer again. By that time, Vertigo had already walked away.

About a hundred meters from her position, Mashuranbo stood like a statue and Ryuma used one of his special cards to connect with him. In the air, she now saw the shimmer of a black card with a starry deep space on it and instantly recognized it. It seemed the card could be accessed from the outside, if one had certains tools. She made note of it, then turned her attention to the kittens. At least they were alright and hadn't been caught in any falling branches or dragons.

"Listen to me carefully. Don't mention Hakuba went with Ogin, alright?" she whispered, hoping that Grandora hadn't given Ryuma any super-sensitive hearing.

"Alright, we promise." Sen said bravely.

Ryuma would soon start asking questions, but by then Ogin and Hakuba would be far away. At least, that she hoped. Unga was here, so the alternative was that both Ogin and Hakuba lay dead somewhere farther into the jungle, that Ryuma had killed them to retrieve Unga ...

... who was currently breaking into a coughing fit. She was at Mashuranbo's other side, probably supporting the magic while Ryuma worked, except when he stopped to grumble at the old Unga.

What was he doing? Didn't he see how bad her condition was?

"Unga, stop that noise, I'm not done asking questions! This isn't the first time Mashuranbo lost control!"

With some effort, Unga got her coughing reduced to panting. Impatiently, Ryuma added : "Why is he trying to kill her? You said something earlier about a risk of the loyalty of her friends defying the black card. That would lead me to believe he'd start_ listening to her_, and not _killing her_. Do you even know how that card of yours works?"

"That was the real Mashuranbo." Unga whispered.

"He's dead, his card was split over the gems. I've told you, get me a better explanation."

"My black card suspends the minds of Mashura and the others ... I had not expected the mind of the real Mashuranbo to surface due to this, I thought he was locked inside the gems. Forgive me my liege, I didn't realize he ...*cough* ... didn't realize his mind could come together again ... *cough* ..."

She went through knees and the coughing returned, followed by an unnatural purple glow coming from the wound on her back. She fell forward, seemed to fight it, and then closed her eyes and collapsed.

"Unga?" the dragon's voice asked, and Yakumo saw that child again.

Unga didn't reply.

Mashuranbo's eyes turned back to green.

**· · · · · · ·**

Gabriel entered the council chamber and found his queen with her other three most trusted, standing around a holographic projection. Just as he entered a bout of laughter was dying down, which he could only guess to be at Ryuma's expense. In between the unsteady alliance with the robots, the unknown weapon and the fact that Ryuma had both Yakumo and Mashuranbo, there was little else to joke about.

Lucifen sat on her throne and sported an amused expression. She didn't seem too concerned about anything, but he knew better than to make guesses at his queen's frame of mind.

When she noticed him, she bid him to come closer and report.

He bowed and said :"My queen, I have returned with little news. Please forgive me."

"You have done what you could. What did our spies find?"

"The weapon disappeared from the city, along with the citizens of the city."

She was mildly surprised. "Explain."

"From survivors in the forest, our robots gathered that Ryuma has carded the citizens and taken them along, mere hours before our spies arrived. The weapon apparently was already gone before Ryuma came."

"Ha! What does that brat think he's doing? We can just take the city now!" the tengu Karas screeched.

"I suppose he wanted soldiers. Does he honestly not understand the strategical important of that location?" the harpy Meve said in an irritable tone, more so due to her fellow lieutenant's attitude than anything else.

At this, the third lieutenant also had something to add : "If these unknown defenders truly wanted to keep the city, they would have stayed. Either they expected Ryuma to take defense of the city from there, or they are of a nature that would automatically prompt Ryuma to wipe them out."

"Hm ... you have a point, Rabe. Do you also have suspicions?" Lucifen said.

"Perhaps they are ghost types, my queen." the raven suggested.

"I am glad to hear you have not fallen to the suspicions of surviving humans, unlike certain factions of my country. Oh well. Gabriel, do you have anything else to report?"

"Yes. We have found several forgotten cards in the city. May I suggest we revive them to win further information?"

"Off course."

At this, he revealed a specific card he had found.

"We unearthed this from under a collapsed section of the canyon. I am not sure, but it seems to be one of Ryuma's ministers. Should we revive him too?"

Lucifen took the card he held out and briefly glanced at it.

"Yes. Revive him, treat him courteously and arrange for him to speak with me. I would like to see whether we are not the only ones tired of Ryuma's nonsense."

**· · · · · · ·**


	10. Fear Veil

**· · · · · · ·**

Fear is could be the same as rational behavior, other times it was a chemical that disabled every physical function saves the ones needed for immediate survival. Then there were times like right now, when it was merely a tag attached to the current situation. Yakumo lay on her stomach in the bed and remembered the first conversation she and Ryuma had kept here. Before him, every enemy had been the same, they just wanted to kill her and all were just evil for some undefined reason. With with Lucifen and Ryuma in the game, things were different. Lucifen had a more complicated goal for which she was willing to reform the world, while Ryuma compensated for his actual weakness with childish cruelty. What she feared was what their next crazy ideas would be.

She had found out by now what had been in that bag : hundreds of En-card, harvested in the city that the rebels had tried to defend. Ryuma meant to use them for an army, even though they were just ordinary people and would be of little use. But the door to her room was locked and she couldn't get out to talk to him. He hadn't been in her dreamscapes during the passing night and so all that was left to her was waiting.

She had driven away time by naming her two mute handmaids, eventually settling on Saki and Sakura. Naming two reptiles after flowers might seem awkward, especially since they were hardly beautiful (by Ryuma's standards, anyway), but Yakumo had named them for their gentleness. The kittens were with her too. Te poor things had been asleep for most of yesterday, but right now they were before the fireplace, messing around with paper and crayons.

When Sanju noticed Yakumo was awake, she happily greeted her and climbed onto her lap. Yakumo held her close and got a little comfort from the warm yellow fur.

It had to be horrible for the kittens to be waiting for their uncle to return, for everything to become alright again. That she soon would have to explain that there was a chance they wouldn't see their uncle again ... it was another rock on her side of the scale, weighing her down. On the opposite scale was everything she held dear. The more she sank, the less she could see, but she knew that if the scale tipped so far that she'd fall, the other side would fall too.

"Hey, Yakumo," the kitten said as she looked up. But the crown hissed at her and she sunk back. Yakumo reached up to touch the thing, causing it to silence. Her hand lingered and she realized this crown was likely the reason her skull wasn't cracked open by Mashuranbo. This dreadful thing, that she had never imagined she would owe her life to.

She brought herself back to the present. "Sanju, was there something you wanted to say?"

"Yes, I have to tell you about something nice! There was this pretty blond girl, she came twice when you slept and had this card, it made your injuries a bit better every time." This surprised Yakumo, not because he was tending for her but because he apparently did have time ... and deliberately avoided speaking with her, it seemed.

"Is that girl a friend of yours?" Yakumo couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh Sanju. _That _was Ryuma in his true form."

"Whaaaat?" Rei said as he climbed on the bed. "Seriously?"

Yakumo nodded.

"Then why was he nice to you?" Sanju asked.

"Because he doesn't want his trophy to look bad. Don't mistake it for kindness, Sanju. He has no qualms about hurting anyone he consider less than doll. All of you, please stay far from him, he is our enemy."

"But didn't you say everyone should be friends? Why are you saying such things, Yakumo?"

"I still believe that. But some won't become friends no matter what we do. Sanju, Rei, Sen, when that boy comes again, don't draw his attention to you. Do you understand?"

They nodded. "Yes!"

"We also didn't tell anyone about Hakuba going with Ogin. But Unga did."

Her breath stopped for a moment, then she said : "Did he find Hakuba?"

"No, it was only a while ago that she told, I think. She's really ill and she slept for a long time. Rei went out to find something to do, he heard some palace people talk about stuff."

"Oh ... " Yakumo recalled Unga's collapse and wondered whether Ryuma had bothered at all to give _her _proper care. Maybe there was a way to find out ... no, she had to make certain herself. Just finding out was useless, much like merely find Center now was useless in bringing peace. Something had to be done. Her eyes fell on the fireplace, then she asked Rei to bring her a paper and a black crayon.

"Saki, could you please find me something?" she said while handing the paper to the handmaid, who nodded and rushed off. Then Yakumo stood up, headed for the mirror. The moment she was on her feet, the serpents changed from bed clothing to a castle gown, but her gem remained part of it. She took a deep breath and focused her will.

It was more difficult than regular defensive moves, but eventually she could transform the gown's look. She almost felt guilty, or ashamed, for what she was about to do. After all, they were in the middle of a war, it felt misfit to stand before a mirror and adjust her clothing. But on the other hand, it harmed nobody, and if anything she wanted to show she wasn't anyone's compliant little rabbit anymore. What she wore would have to be something that matched herself, not Ryuma's tastes. For starters, she brought back her old mint color.

**· · · · · · ·**

"Ryuma, I need to talk to you," said a familiar voice on the other side of the door.

"Busy! Guards, escort her back!" Ryuma grumbled. He was so going to have a chat with who ever let her out of _and _this far away from her room. But instead of the return of his much desired silence, the door cracked and swung open. There stood Yakumo, holding a redhot crowbar with silver gloves made of _his _serpents. In fact, her entire gown was not what he had designed for her, it was far more intricate and reminded of her prior outfit. Somehow, that she had control over how his magic looked ticked him off more than the dozens of broken doors that were probably in her trail.

"Where are Unga and Mashuranbo? I can help," she said firmly.

They hadn't really spoken in the real world since the day of crowning and that he would have liked to stay true for quite a while. Yakumo's opinion differed a little. She cast a quick glance over the room to estimate the situation.

Ryuma sat on a fallen statue before a magical wall, wilted rose petals and shredded stems covered the floor. Once, this had been the garden where he bred those roses he perpetually carried around, just to destroy them at dramatically appropriate moments. Now, he had destroyed all of them, even though he didn't look like he'd been making dramatic declarations anytime lately. In fact, he looked exhausted and worn-out. It tugged at her compassion, but right now she her anger was louder. Especially when she noticed the walls. On them were countless designs, some still active.

"What is this? You should be concentrating on defending against the next invasion. Why are you only designing the water mecha?"

He slammed his arm down on the table aside of him. "You are in no position to tell me what to do!"

Yakumo was not impressed. To her it only looked like a child desperate to prove his dominance, everything he did was testimony to that. The fear for weakness she could sympathize with, though this stuck together quite differently than with Ryuma. She was not ashamed of her weakness, she just hated it because she couldn't protect. And he was a blockade to her.

Her continued silence made him nervous and he looked away, then back again, then changed position, then finally got up and moved closer as if intent on dragging her out of the room himself. She took a few steps back and held him with defiant eyes. He stopped.

"What do you want?" he sneered.

"I told you already. I would like to help Unga and assist in restoring control on Mashuranbo."

"No. I don't have the time to make sure you don't do anything you're not supposed to do. I still have to complete my army, revive Mashuranbo and find those rebels." The more he spoke, the more emphasis he placed on his words, almost as if tempting her to get angry. Yakumo suspected he wanted a reason to express power, but when she realized he was _looking_ for reasons now, rather than just _doing it_, she had to smile.

"What's funny?" he promptly asked. She didn't go into it. "You already found the rebels, didn't you? I'm sure you saw their base and what little of a threat they pose to you. They only have their cannon, and in disassembled state it's nothing."

"They got away. Besides, I was not looking for the rebels, I was looking for _you_. Only one thing breaks Mashuranbo's seal and he knows it. So when he disappeared, I remembered, hey, someone was scourging around in my mind. Maybe you're no longer behind the astral barrier of the castle."

"You should be a little less dedicated to stalking me and a little more dedicated to the invasion that's going on right now!"

"Stalking? What's your problem? I saved your life!"

"Saved me? Only to lead me back into your prison. You know I could have contacted you any time I wanted, and I _did not _call for your help. If you had not been there —"

"Shut up!"

"If you had not existed at all, neither would Black Mashuranbo. Me and my friends would have been on our way to Center, if we hadn't found it already."

"There is no Center and there is no Shinzo!"

"That _you _can't see it doesn't prove anything," she replied, but her momentary rage had ebbed at the mention of Shinzo. For a moment she stood still and looked over Ryuma with mixed feelings, her unconditional love for anything living on one end, her very personal hatred on the other. She turned away when the latter became too strong.

"If you change your mind about letting me try to help, just ask me and I will do what I can," she said while turning to leave.

"Go back to your room and don't wake up until you're called," he snarled.

The crown obliged.

**· · · · · · ·**

The unpleasant flip side of the story was that Yakumo had also saved him, which created an obnoxious grain of sand within Ryuma's pride. He tried brushing it off by blaming her silly ideals, her desire to save the people trying to kill her. Nobody cared for her and nobody cared for him either. He didn't ask them to and they accepted his reign, that's how it was supposed to be. Yakumo was an idiot.

Unfortunately, there was another grain of sand : Mashuranbo had locked up entirely. He didn't respond to anything, no commands or threats, nothing, and Ryuma had no idea why. Pride forbid him to go to her room and ask for help. But wasn't haunting her dreamscapes a favorite past time anyway? He could use some sleep himself. This way, he excused that he needed to gain aid from a little rabbit.

As he arrived in Yakumo's dreams, he found a landscape devoid of ice, though still cold. But it wasn't the paradise he had more or less expected, now that Yakumo had control over her spirit again. In fact, the more he wandered through the abandoned city, the more he realized this was a hell greater than his icescape, at least for Yakumo.

It was a memory of the war. The stench of corpses came from some of the buildings, starving humans scurried around. At one point he even saw a human carrying off another human's limb, he fought off a wave of nausea when he realized why. Elsewhere, a group of humans were torturing an Enterran to death, laughing and impaling a defenseless insect with iron they had pulled from exploded buildings. Not too far off, a few children played with half molten plastic toys, and he saw one of them had scars of burning.

There were too much distorted scenes here, no, not just one memory. The city itself seemed to be so, it was as indistinct as the humans and Enterrans were faceless, and at some places there were strange patches that were perfectly unaffected and more defined, perhaps she had seen them on photos. Ryuma lingered here the most, for he was curious at the culture, if not at the humans themselves.

As he continued searching, he figured out he had to go where the destroyed buildings had the sharpest features. Where the memory was strongest, she would be.

This turned out to be a bunker underneath some random building that Yakumo remembered in a mixture of what it once had been, and what it had become. A hidden guard stopped him, demanded in a strange language that he identify himself. Ryuma wondered why his own eyes didn't betray him to the man, since he was so clearly Enterran. Then he decided to simply ignore it and walk in. More faceless humans, all exhausted and injured, were crowded together in the chambers below the earth. He went past them as quickly as possible.

He found Yakumo in one of the farthest rooms, one that was built as a laboratory. Several people worked here who did have faces, though their actions were pointless and random, for Yakumo at that time had not understood what they worked on. She herself was in the corner, playing with a little doll. Much to his surprise, it was the doll he had used as bait, though it was no longer broken.

"Why do you have that?" He hadn't meant to show curiosity, but this memory forced expression, somehow, or he was no longer able to control himself as he wanted in her mindscape.

The little Yakumo smiled innocently and held the doll close. "Cause it's my friend," she said happily.

"You never had that," he said.

She stood up, and in the same motion she grew out to the side he knew her as, a little taller than him. "Just like you never had me?"

He scoffed and looked away. "I'm not here to argue about that."

"No, you're here for answers about Mashuranbo. Well, I'm glad you're at least acknowledging you need help."

"I didn't—"

"You _are _here."

He glared, but didn't argue. "Alright. So I did. Now spit it out."

"My presence woke him, but Unga is the one who holds the chains for you," Yakumo said.

"How would you know?"

"I thought about it. I also think I can do something to both control Mashuranbo and help Unga."

"I don't want you and your demonic powers near Unga."

"If I'm a demon, then you are too. We could go in circles like this forever," she said, a little impatient.

"No, we won't. You've just told me in what direction I need to look," he said as he prepared to leave, though he kept an eye on her. Despair looked different than fear, Ryuma noted almost casually to himself. But when he looked ahead, the memory's scene had changed. An argument had broken out between the scientists in the laboratory and this was a language she understood, so understood as well.

The man whose features were clearest he now learned to be her father, Daigo, and the others were fellow scientists whom he had met a few months ago. The cause of the argument was that they had found out his last name through an accurate guess. They had suspected it for months, but now they had tricked him into using a technique only a few should know ... he was Daigo Shindo, the man who had helped create the Enterrans. Inventor of the En-card, which had caused the government to allow so much power to the mutants ... they could be carded anyway, right? No, now they had a war, and they had a target to direct their hatred at.

Yakumo, a small child again, ran to her father and clutched onto his leg. He looked down, saw his child, muttered, "Yakumo, this isn't ... shouldn't be ..." He didn't finish and for a long moment, everyone lingered. The scientists hesitated at the sight of the little girl, while the father hoped for a miracle. But that miracle would not be and their hearts hardened.

"Call security and tell them who we have here." Daigo wasted no time now the sentence had been felled, he reached for a hidden gun and fired. In the ensuing panic, he picked up his daughter and ran. A robot followed him, and then they were out of Ryuma's sight. He ought to return to reality now, but curiosity wasn't a bad thing in his book, so he followed them instead, a little more hurried than he wanted to admit.

They escaped unharmed, if only because their pursuers were noisy and they prey was not. A pack of raiding Enterrans heard them and before the humans fully realized it, an ambush had closed around them. In the far distance, Ryuma saw three specks disappear, while the remaining humans fled back into the bunker. The doors sealed behind them and Ryuma wondered whether it was just Yakumo's mind hoping they were alright. The Enterrans now knew where the hide out was, but the memory ended and her imagination took over. The Enterrans merely left ... no, no wait.

A scent of carrion appeared, and the bunker's doors were open again. They hadn't left. Yakumo had merely skipped the slaughter she knew had occurred. They must have returned later, for there she was again, in the opening of the bunker's door. A little girl still, but as she walked up she grew out into her older self.

"This is what the birds will do to the reptiles, whom they consider inferior. You are marked as a traitor to the Enterran species because you shield me. It doesn't matter that your reasons aren't altruistic," she said softly as she stopped before him. "It's also what you are doing to your own people, whom you despise and fear. It's what you are doing to the rebels, for they don't bow to you. The world must look quite awful to you, with how much loathing you give it."

"You're not going to give another peace rant, are you?"

Yakumo took on that rare lethal glare as she said : "No. Hear another thing. Do you know how Mashuranbo died?" He just stared. Any snide remark he might have made was washed away, because that he wanted to know. Everyone on the world wanted to know, yet the sense within Yakumo's mind, here and now, was frightening because _she _knew.

"I didn't know what my father was doing at the time. I've heard him say things about my power, but always thought he referred to goodness. To think he was talking about my power to destroy ..." Her eyes became distant and she shivered. "I have the ability to reduce Enterrans to cards without wearing down their power or destroying their bodies. If I hadn't already been injured, I could have carded Mashuranbo again. Ogin had remained to help me, we might have pulled it off. And — no, wait!"

It was fear why he withdrew from her mindscape right then, so he told himself. It was self preservation, just in case she might have more tricks up her sleeve.

If what Yakumo said was true ... If that scientist had been able to start training Yakumo and developing aid for her powers, then the humans might have won the war after all. She could destroy Mashuranbo himself ...

_Oh crap_.

Ryuma had always been certain his sense of self preservation was quite adequate. There were some doubts surrounding Mashuranbo, sure, but he had never realized that self preservation might mean "even your harmless little doll can become a devil". And whether his pride was willing to acknowledge it or not, she _would_ get free at some point. Well then, so be it. He'd have to start playing more cleverly then and dispose of her at the earliest chance. Starting with a few very specific orders to the crown while she still slept.

**· · · · · · ·**

Lucifen observed the minister, finding a Dimetrodon-human chimera who walked on his hind legs when awake. His head was almost entirely reptilian, though his face was human enough to have sort-of lips and hence able to speak like she did. Ryuma's ministers consisted exclusively of creatures able to partially regulate their body temperature in one way or another and able to speak the humanoid tongue. No wonder, considering the temperature was so strongly tied to the brat's moods. This minister had a sail on his back that could be used to regulate his body temperature, despite being cold blooded, and she was interested what mental capacities had gotten him the position.

Unfortunately, this very sail prevented him from sitting down lest his tail was level behind him, so she had to have her informal reception chamber reformed (all chairs had been cleared away). Really, she should have used the formal one, but ... it included non-detachable a statue of a bird general killing a dragon. Not very encouraging to the friendly atmosphere she hoped to create.

Though that image was perhaps a little inviting to herself, since the minister in question was asleep and just wouldn't wake up. It was not courteous to rouse him, just as it was not courteous of him to be asleep here. But she was willing to blame it on atmosphere shock. Ryuma's icy cold had proceeded right along into subspace, so perhaps he hadn't woken at all yet.

If Lucifen had one thing by now, then it was near infinite patience, and she could always spare to wait a little for first time experiences. She favored those over the ones that repeated themselves again and again.

When he finally woke, it was already late in the day. Instead of the ice palace he expected, he was in a pleasantly warm room full of a bitter flowery scent, pillows under him and ... someone he had seen in Ryuma's mirrors so now and then. Her form was what humans called angelic, and what Ryuma so now and then called Yakumo with a soft mocking voice. Angels were said to be symbols of good if their wings were white, he had always found this a foolish idea. Lucifen was an enemy whose soft wings were deceptive ... so why was she here, sitting in a cozy chair opposite of him? There were several other chairs in fact, hers no more special than those. What the heck? If this was an enemy throne hall waiting to interrogate him, he was a hoolahooping rabbit.

"Your name is Yuid, if I am correct?" she asked with a mild smile, seeming amused at his bafflement. Due to the form of his face, he couldn't look straight ahead, so he turned his head to the side, leaving only one reptile eye to read responses from. It didn't change much, save for the third lid occasionally flashing.

"Where am I? What do you want of me?" Fortunately his voice allowed her to tell a lot more about the minister. Confusion and suspicion.

"Obviously, you're in my lands and I wish your cooperation," she calmly said.

"You what?"

"Yes, I. I what? You'd throw accusations at my head, insults? Remember your place. I treat you with the respect a politician deserves, but if you do not at least try to repay the same, I might change my mind and consider you a prisoner of war."

"I'm not one already?"

"No. We found your card in the city we conquered — and granted political and religious freedom. As a sign of good will, we have decided to revive those killed in Ryuma's wake. After all, we intend to conquer a domain, not a wasteland." He didn't have to know there was no city left, and those being revived would be kept here for the time being.

"Whatever. I'm not going to work for you, why would I?" But the few humanoid muscles in the reptile's face twitched and he curled his head down, barring teeth. Lucifen accurately guessed he was not very happy with his emperor. Perfect.

"Why would you not? I will win anyway. But if you win my favor before that, you'll get my cooperation as well. With a position of power in my realm, you will be able to help your people much better than when you get locked up, or in Ryuma's service."

He seemed to chuckle. "You'll win anyway? We have Mashuranbo and that filthy human." As if that was enough.

"Mashuranbo? You are hoping that _Mashuranbo_ will save you? You are mistaken, Yuid. Mashuranbo is your savior no more than I am," she said with a light laugh. "One fatal scenario is that Mashuranbo manages to free himself. You have to understand what he is. He takes joy in suffering, yet wouldn't stand the humans to live as our slaves. What do you think will happen once he succeeds and he has nothing more to kill? I have known him personally, I'll tell you that we will be next." She paused for a moment, letting the words sink in. "The other fatal scenario is that Yakumo figures out she has a limited but perfect way to kill whatever Enterran she wants to kill. We would be on her list before we'd be on Mashuranbo's. Be honest, do you think either of those two will aid you?"

He didn't respond at once, but then said hoarsely, "He disappeared. Just before I died. Mashuranbo."

The smallest victorious smile appeared on Lucifen's face, but it covered up her internal alarm. "~ _Already? Too soon!_ ~"

"Off course. Now that Mashura, Sago and Kutal are sealed, the real Mashuranbo is surfacing again. He'll be out soon, and he'll be eager to become the god of destruction again. But Mashuranbo's downfall is that cruelty. He can kill quickly, but some he lets live so that they can come back to haunt him. He taunts and provokes the wrong people and that is what ended up with all his deaths. He'll play for a while, and that buys us time to act."

"His _deaths_?"

"Don't question, you would not understand. What you can understand is this : the seven generals won the war despite being cruel and merciless. Ryuma plays with his citizens, and once, long ago, I too would wipe out my own armies just to get a shot at the hero, not bothering to tell them to move. But almost all generals are dead now. Kimyras, Franken, Dyhanger, I have them. Daku is presumably in Yakumo's hands, and Ryuma may be so very soon. In the end, I hope to have all."

"Why are you doing this? Didn't the generals work as one? You all were the hope of the Enterrans, but you're oppressing us like the humans did!" he snarled.

Lucifen was a lot better as masking discontent than he was. Her feathers ruffled a little, a movement so slight he didn't notice. "I am doing this all because none of them can be trusted to make a worthwhile world. Not even the person I used to be. But that has changed. Let me show you _my_ world." She snapped her fingers and somewhere unseen, a servant opened the automatic doors that led to a balcony. Another useful purpose of this reception chamber was the sight it gave.

A city built for bird Enterrans. Wide halls, perches everywhere, and only a few streets for the flightless. Instead there was a vast amount of towers and arches, lights to control the airway and many little imperfections that the reptile would be unable to see. Indeed, he saw a city like he had never seen one before : warm yet sculpted like the ice palace, where nobody wore rags and order ruled everything. Instead of poor buildings, a uniform terra color with rdetailed markings created a unity in the city. Here, red was not the color of blood, but of protection and happiness.

She stepped aside and let him watch for a while, until she called him in for a few refreshments that had arrived. Yakumo could see oppression here if she wanted to see it. But whether that was true depended on the reptiles themselves, and when this minister returned inward, she saw the seed of doubt having rooted.

"You said, it buys _us _time. What for exactly, Queen Lucifen?"

**· · · · · · ·**

This was the first time that Yakumo saw Ryuma in something other than royal garb. He usually wore some fancy variation of classic noble clothing, blue, sometimes purpur, always with a cape. Today, he only wore a shirt, a cloak and regular pants. The lines under his eyes were also more clear than before, and the lookout over the arena was a mess to match him.

"Why did you call me?" she said, but her attention was to the work down below. Some watery shapes stood, but very few pilots were to be seen. Most moving down there were mechanics, covered in cloth and huddled around fires. She'd already lost hope he wanted to let her help Unga when she had woken to Rei's desperate calling; he and the others had been pursued by the guards for some reason. She had intervened, and the kittens hadn't been out of her sight since then. The guards hadn't been either, so once or twice she had used her serpents on them.

"You've been having fun with my guards, haven't you?" Ryuma casually said. She just glared at him, waiting for an answer to her own question, but Ryuma wasn't easily pressed.

"I made a lot of progress with the mecha. They're very efficient, and the technology tricks you shared were quite useful."

"Are you the one who is hurting uncle Kutal and the others too?" San demanded. Yakumo quickly hushed him and wished she'd been able to leave them in her room, but Ryuma continued undisturbed.

"See, my water golems work, but the problem is the pilot. The more they weigh, the more energy is lost in supporting them. But the small ones go to sleep too quickly when deprived of heat, since all my wonderful subjects are cold blooded." He had barely finished, or he reached down to grab Sanju. With one quick motion, he tossed her down. "Cats are very agile, from what I understand, and also quite warm blooded."

"What are you doing?" a panicking Yakumo called. She ran to the balustrade, where below she found Sanju meowing and screaming, only to have her voice muffled as one of the workers forced her into a water suit.

"What? I'm working to defend my country, as you demanded," Ryuma said wickedly. To him, it was delightful that this scene was a repeat of earlier, when she had realized he was the enemy. Though, her futile attempts to grab the black card weren't quite up to what she could do now. A light aura flared around her already, but he simply added, "Careful Yakumo. Using your powers might awaken Mashuranbo, I stored him not too far away. Besides, I already ensured that the crown would suppress any use of your powers against me. You were foolish to inform me of your abilities."

"I told you that not as a threat, but to show that ... that ... You really don't see? You ... " She took a deep breath. "Ryuma. I figured one thing out. Whether or not I take up a sword against you has nothing to do with whether I'm a good person."

"That's a little too late, unfortunately. Without your powers, you're just a human. What can you do?"

A little too late he noticed one of her hands disappeared through the side of her gown.

Right. Crowbar. Hidden in a magical dress made out of _his _magic. Wasn't covered by "_don't use your paranormal powers against me_".

Currently Ryuma was only in his humanoid form, so being hit in the stomach was a bit of a problem. He buckled forward and she hit him again on the spine, once, twice, and finally on the back of his head. While Ryuma collapsed, Yakumo fanned out her snakes and swung herself down into the training hall.

"Sanju, hold on!" When the mechanics tried to stop her, they experienced first hand that Ryuma had only forbidden her to use her powers against him and nobody else. She simply threw them away telekinetically, the one that had dared smirking at Sanju's distress got a crowbar right after. Ryuma barely heard its impact and a yelp before he himself lost consciousness.

**· · · · · · ·**

_"You look awfully human," a serpent had told another long ago._

_"I'll show you that I'm not," the human had replied._

_"Oh, I never commented on what you are, just what you look like. You'll never really be able to eradicate humanity off the face of the planet, since your own shell is humanity."  
_

**· · · · · · ·**


	11. Redemption Equals

**· · · · · · ·**

Not since her return to the castle had Unga been out of her room, or even off the bed. Her skin had whitened much akin to crumbling ashes, though no scent or sound of illness was around. Only the visual world was weakening with her, and the candles burned low no matter what servants did to make them shine brighter. Unga said she did it, perhaps so they would not be too frightened, but they could tell she lied. Magic greater than hers was at work here.

Tentatively, Ryuma stepped into this messy black room. He quietly passed the cauldrons chests and closets, but she heard him anyway when a set of fallen healing cards shifted under his feet. Noticing his stiff movement, she asked, "My lord, are you alright?"

"No."

"So the crowbar story is true?" She sounded amused, for which Ryuma once might have punished her, but he couldn't do that now.

"Are you?"

"Are what?"

"How are you doing?" he said sharply, irritated at having to ask this at all.

"I'm doing imminent death, though I can't tell you _how_ exactly."

"It's because you're holding back Mashuranbo, aren't you?"

"Oh, you figured it out? Yeah, I hold him back and now he's tearing me into pieces."

"And it's because of Yakumo he can break free?"

"In part. It started because of her."

"I'll try getting rid of her. She can already defy the crown if she really wants to, and —"

"You'll _try_? Hmph. Even if you could, you better not. Now Mashuranbo will just return to who he was and start a rampage, whether or not she's alive."

"Oh, and what made you change your mind? You were so adamant that I kill her before."

"Changed my mind? I haven't. My concern has always been you, and it still is. Right now, your welfare requires that human alive. She's getting dangerously smart lately, but she has some power to affect Mashuranbo, and I'm hoping it can do so for the better too. And what the heck were you thinking, provoking her after learning she can kill you?"

"I wanted to make sure she understands I'm not to be messed with, and I'll kill her friends if she tries anything."

"Let's assume what she says is true, and she can to kill Enterrans as she pleases. She could have let you be killed by Gyasa, and she might have tried killing you in the garden. Did she?"

"Sh—"

"She is either bluffing, unaware of the full scope of her powers or telling the absolute truth. Whatever it was, it was really pointless to taunt her. Right now, she wants to stop Lucifen. So do we. At least, so do I, the ministers, the court, the entire country, but I'm not sure about you. You're more preoccupied with your precious ego. Oh, the citizens who don't obey me! Oh, my doll is escaping! Invasion? Invasion? Well, haven't seen it at my castle yet, so not a big deal, right? Oh, and me and Yakumo found out where the next invasion would most likely be. We went to meet you to persuade you to go to the riverlands, the Prathet Tai in the south. Probably too late now, I'm sure Lucifen is cozily having her first genuine Antrapi fish dinner while gloating over owning a tactical location that we never even knew was a weak spot."

He had sat there like the spoiled child being reprimanded for the first time, or perhaps the second. Never mind Yakumo beating him up. _Unga_ was scolding him. Maybe he'd gotten caught in another one of Gyasa's illusions. When she seemed done with her rant, he stood up and walked to the nearest ice wall. These walls were rough, but full of magic and he could draw in images from far away. With a brush of his hand, he conjured a vision in its reflection.

A land of rivers and islands, to the south. At first he found nothing, but then her broke through a thin barrier that he had always mistaken for the border of Franken's domain. Into the sea was a city, ... no, a network of cities. Here lived crocodiles, plesiosaurs, liopleurodons, anacondas and other aquatic reptiles that could hold their breath for long enough. Submerged air bubbles allowed to never surface, and the gift of hands had allowed them to build and develop technology, forced by the harsh environment and the threat of Franken's domain.

Above the surface were only a few islands, but now they were packed with cannons and other defenses that prevented the birds from landing. Lucifen's armies had only claimed a few islands out of many thousands, there was no sign of conquest. He soon found out why, the rebels had arrived in time and taken down Lucifen's airship, hence destroyed her primary arsenal of bombs. Then, they had forced organization.

How in the world they had gotten so far so quickly he couldn't tell, but he suspected it had to do with Yakumo's robot. He had seen that it could teleport, given enough energy. Unga turned her head and grinned when she saw that the birds had not yet won, but it was a hopeless amusement.

"Once they've got those lands, they can tear right through the center of our lands. Do you know the names given to that region?" She made a gurgled sound, a name that Ryuma could not pronounce with his human throat. Noticing his silence, she continued, "It is the land of Freedom, populated by what seems to be mere fishers, and as long as one leaves it alone, that's all there is. Like a crocodile lying silently on the bank, don't splash the water and it sees no prey. But provoke it, and it will tear you under water.

Lucifen probably passed up invading it exactly because of that reason. But now she's noticed there is opposition with the Megalopolis'... We know the rebels are limited, but Lucifen doesn't. She won't risk another loss as she suffered there, so she abandoned the strategy of conquering all the megalopolis' ... if she has the riverlands she can march in like a needle and spread from there, until only the Himalaya remains, encircled by her."

"H-how did you find out without me?" was all he managed to bring out, alike once he'd been a toddler in a court too large for him.

"Suspicious birds have been spotted there and it's a large source of food for our domain. We have a whole trading network going on, and they know the lands, the maps ... it was only a matter of listening and gathering it into that stupid machine of hers, then we tapped into her brain for some stray Bird Wired information on bird military and voila, location." It had been a lot more complicated in reality, especially in getting people to actually talk about what they knew and predicting weather circumstances, but Ryuma wouldn't have the patience for those details anyway.

"All this was going on without ... how long have they been building those cities?"

"Does it hurt to feel foolish? Probably not as much as being electrocuted. Well guess what, your already ruined your reputation by marrying a human. Maybe it looks like a show of power to you, but it looked stupid to everyone else! So don't worry for your reputation."

"I didn't know you had this much rebellion in you. Anything else?" he muttered.

"Yes. You're a lousy emperor and a sore disappointment. I dedicated my life to your whims and all I got was a moronic toddler. When I noticed you wanted to control Mashuranbo I thought, hey, maybe you're finally getting some sense, but noooo, you have to go off marry that human. I'm the one who is rebellious? You stuck up brat, I've been nothing but loyal to you! This is not rebellion, this is your life time's worth of frustration! And I coped with that till my day of death, which is now, so you're in no position to complain!"

"Where did you get the nerve?" But what once might have been threatening to her fell on open and rejecting ears. His whole body ached from the battles and transformation of the last days, he was tired, and he had worn out his metaphors for hurt pride a while ago. Yakumo and Unga, who should have been inferior to him. For the first time in his life, Ryuma surrendered.

"I got it cause I'm dying, there's nothing you can do to me anymore. If I must go down, then at least I want to try hammer some sense into your stubborn little head."

Little. For a long time he sat there, caught in a whirlwind of identical thoughts.

"You're not allowed to die," he finally said.

"I know."

**· · · · · · ·**

Unga was not the only ill one. Sanju had suffered some damage from being forced into the machine, suffered a cold and had either torn muscles or frozen ones. Too much strain on her, she drifted in and out of consciousness. But she would recover, Yakumo was certain, as long as no gangrene set in.

She had closed to curtains to keep the warmth in and the fire constantly burned. Saki had obtaind more candles, and the entire room was shrouded in a warm light. That mood did not reflect within Yakumo, who hid a worried mind behind a kind smile. Busy wiping Sanju's drippy nose, she didn't notice Ryuma until she stood up and nearly bumped into him. She startled.

"I'm not here for payback," he simply said. "Why didn't you tell me about the predicted invasion right away?"

"I forgot," she whispered. "I was worried about these powers and what I'm supposed to do with them, it's too late now anyway, and I forgot. Besides, you weren't exactly interesting in hearing anything, and then I become angry ..."

"Angry? Heh, ... I hope you have any of that left to face Mashuranbo."

"What?"

"I've got something for your powers to do. We're going to rescue Unga now." He took her hand and pulled her out of the room.

"Sanju —"

"She'll be right here when you come back."

He let go of her out in the hall and marched on, hurried. Yakumo took a deep breathed and followed. The whole way, she noticed an absence of servants anywhere, and the lights were somehow more red than blue.

"He's doing _something_ to Unga. Vertigo says he can mess with meridians, so I'm guessing he is trying to kill Unga in a way that breaks him entirely free," Ryuma said when they finally arrived in the witch quarters.

If the atmosphere of the halls had altered, then this place all the more. Always gloomy and scented like witchcraft, but this was a different kind of darkness ... less mysterious, more malicious.

"What should I do?" Yakumo said hesitantly as she looked around, her eyes needing some time to adjust to the darkness.

Exasperated, he said, "I don't know. How should I know? She fell asleep a few hours ago and didn't wake up. One of the last things ... she said you were what woke Mashuranbo and you might be the key to subduing him. I don't see the logic in that, but ... just do something."

Yakumo sat down aside of the bed and looked at the withering witch. Taking her hand, she found that it felt neither cold nor warm, but rather like sandy rock. Whether that was natural or not she didn't know.

"Of magic I understand little, but ... perhaps we can enter the astral planes and see from there?"

"If that's the best you can suggest ... fine, we'll do it." Ryuma pulled a chair closed and sat at the end of the bed. Before she fully realized it, he had drawn her along to the astral layer.

They should have seen something akin to the castle here. But instead they seemed to have ended up in another mental landscape, one of a kind they had never seen before. Both Ryuma and Yakumo held a wasteland in their spirits that closely resembled the worst of their reality. Ryuma embraced the ice, Yakumo sought to cure the warzones, but this ... this wasteland was built on wishes.

To all horizons it stretched under a sky that rapidly exchanged a cold blue sun for a copper moon. Light, shadow, day and night interchanged as if they were throwaway concepts.

They stood on a thick, blood red web, ... no, it wasn't merely colored so, it was soaked. The web was thick, but not thick enough to hold their weight without sinking in a little. Between the tightly knit threads Yakumo could see faces, many lifeless, but others still moving. Hands and claws reached up up desperately, but the web would never truly break. Eventually their clawing and muffled cries faded and they sunk back, only to rise at other spots on the endless plain.

"Where are we?" Yakumo asked, feeling like she was choking. Ryuma didn't answer, feeling it was obvious who had created this realm. He unsheathed his saber and starting cutting through the web.

The sound of a billion prayers for mercy broke through and with it the desperate who spoke them. Like swelling blood they were themselves, piling onto each other as they wrestled free of the small opening; it was as if Ryuma had put a needle pin onto the skin of the planet. A wound that would not dry up on its own, and soon wore on Ryuma's patience.

He froze them over, a disdainful expression on his face. As the forms hardened, they started to sink into the web till Ryuma could simply step on them. Furthering his ice will, he carved a spiral path down through the bodies. Yakumo silenced the cries of her own mind, focusing on the steady voice of her father as he spoke of trivial things in a far past.

"Yakumo, come," Ryuma ordered as he walked down the hole. She closed her eyes and climbed onto the hill, then down a red depth. Her guide was the echo of Ryuma's steps and the cold under her bare feet, for she could not suffer to see the faces and hands frozen in the walls.

For as long as it she passed through the mass, only a moment it was behind her when they reached an inner side. The voices came in waves, rising and fading in motion with death. If their bodies here had been physical, the two children would have gone deaf.

All of humankind revived and died before their eyes, imprisoned as the shell of this planet. Those who had opposed the war, who had striven for equality, now the foundation of a depraved universe. Mashuranbo had killed them all until only those remained who desired destruction, so he had created Enterra.

Yakumo clasped her hands before her mouth and stared above and around with wide eyes. No matter how much she told herself it was a mirage, her tears came regardless. This was the reflection of something that had been very real. Nine billion lives paid for one soul's entertainment.

"Hm, you did such a good job keeping yourself composed when messing around in my mind," Ryuma casually said, having turned to see Yakumo emerge. Gravity now had inverted and they stood on an ice bridge above the withering masses.

"A good job? Your fears are hardly comparable to this sick wish," Yakumo said bitterly. "It must be easy for you, you have little ear for compassion."

"And I'm glad for that."

But when she looked directly at him, she realized he himself merely did a good job at pretending to be strong. The dreams of destruction he had given here involved a lot of broken buildings and explosions, but the fine details of death had been absent. He hadn't known them. Maybe he did not directly feel pity, but he felt horror alright. She saw in in his slightly squinted eyes and tense position, and most of all the fact he had stopped building his bridge in mid air.

"Let us find the core. Maybe we can find his connection to Unga's illness there." Her now softer voice seemed to finally move him, and he raised his hands around to form another spiral stairway. The core of the planet was invisible at this point, and they could only head up, or down. Both would be correct.

If it had been anything like a true planet's size, they would never have arrived in time to save Unga, going by foot. But in the astral plane, time was measured by mental steps instead. They progressed nothing significant, much to Ryuma's frustration, until Yakumo broke a silence that had felt long yet was to be neglected.

"You _are_ worried for her, aren't you?"

"Off course, if I lose Unga, I lose Mashuranbo too."

"That's not what I meant, Ryuma. You're worried for more than loss of power."

"Oh really? And you conclude that on base of what exactly?"

"When I was in Gyasa's prison for you ... Unga wasn't there to help you. That was what the real terror was, is it not?"

"Are we here to save my sorceress or to dissect my head?" he snapped.

"Neither, we're here to save your only family and hopefully, the world from Mashuranbo."

"Family? That old hag? How dare you compare my lineage with that fi- ... a common lizard?"

Yakumo stopped walking and threw him a glare so poisonous he virtually felt it. "I know what you meant to say. Call me devil all you like. But she is dying for you at this very moment, so you have no reason to speak of her like that!"

"I know, I know," he said, with slowly sinking shoulders. He had stopped walking too. "I know."

"Then why do you speak like that?" she asked, softer again.

"You're not going to stop unless I answer? ... fine. Because that's how our world works. I am the emperor, and she is my court sorceress. Enterra has no rights for the weak, it is survival of the fittest or die. That's the world that Mashuranbo created by destroying all those who were 'good' and therefore weak. Should she die for me, it is her duty as my weaker servant and my right as a ruler. If the world ever allowed for a different interpretation of sacrifice, then that world is gone now. We die or are killed."

"That's not a good reason."

"Off course you'd say that. But what would you have me do? Get up and hug her as if she were my mother?"

"It'll do if you're a bit nicer to her. Or at least pay a little more attention to her welfare."

He chuckled oddly. "I suppose you've got a point about that last one, considering where we are now."

She did not like that she could not see his face, so she walked to his side, but he continued before she had reached him. Perhaps because they weren't thinking about length of the road, they soon stood before the core, or maybe they hadn't been thinking about the sights below them. Or maybe, something else was letting them go deeper.

At the very core of the false planet was clutter of web that hung from threads out of all direction. The two carefully climbed in. There was enough room to walk between the cable thick wires, especially since it was a lot harder here. The web was white and not drenched with blood, though it dripped in all over the place. Here was the blend of Unga's mind with the edge of Mashuranbo. They knew, like one knows the places of their dream if they are of something familiar.

Unga's form was not to be seen, but her magic was here and the most alien : it appeared as this white web caught full of glowing energy, roaring mouths and red eyes, reminiscent of the crown that Yakumo wore. Encapsulated within this was the black card and within it, the reflection of a puce haired boy floating in a whirling darkness. His eyes were closed and with him were two giant cards, equally lifeless.

On instinct, Yakumo ran forward and pressed close to the surface. "Mashura! Sago, Kutal!" But they remained as unresponsive as as before, and she realized she could not feel their presence here. Where ever they were, it was too far from this place to reach them. They seemed to be caught in a painful sleep, but they would be strong for a while still. No words of encouragement came to her and no sign of recognition, but it was enough to know Mashuranbo hadn't gotten to them.

Her fingers curled to fists as she saw Ryuma's reflection on the card and she was reminded of irrational hatred, though that call she didn't answer, yet. Instead, she promised her friends she would free them. That much she owed them, and more.

When she turned, she saw Ryuma pulling at the web. He tried tearing off a part, but it was impossible. Stepping back, he said, "I didn't make this ... and Unga made the black card only ... what is this?"

"Does it matter?" Yakumo asked as she let her hand slide across the encasing web. "Her power is in it, so she holds Mashuranbo ... if the blood makes the web so weak it breaks, then he will be free." _And my friends will be lost forever_, said a certain fear.

"How do you know for sure?"

"I've become very familiar with the crown and it's partial sentience," she said as she wiped off some of the blood. "I can feel its relation to this web. It's Unga holding the reigns alright, even if she didn't make it."

"I'll talk to her," he said. Ryuma stepped to the spot Yakumo had cleaned and reached out, though he did not touch it. A few eyes opened at the spot and a warped little mouth appeared in a clot.

"Unga?"

"What? Ryuma, what are _you _doing here?"

"I am here to get you free, obviously."

"That's not what I mean. You should have just sent Yakumo!" Ryuma meant to reply, but Unga droned on. "You idiots, it's a trap! He has woken in the real world and is coming to kill us off while we all are absent! He let you in so far because it will take long for you to awaken! Get back right now!"

Yakumo blinked, surprised at hearing the usually calm voice of Unga call Ryuma an idiot so unabashed. If not for their current situation, she would have laughed.

"Well, that explains why we met no Mashuranbo here. Dammit! But she wouldn't have made it in here o—"

"Oh shut up. One of you stays here and tries to do something, whatever, against this bloody spell!"

"But how?" Yakumo asked.

"Figure that out later. Someone needs to stop Mashuranbo!"

A momentary silence, as they wondered who should go. Ryuma was the first to speak, and it was out before he had considered.

"Didn't you say you could handle Mashuranbo so well?"

"Alright, I'll go," Yakumo said with a shiver and determination. "Ryuma, don't let the blood soak into you."

With that last warning, she turned around while casting last glance at the black card and her friends, then climbed out of the web and onto the ice stairway. She ran so fast she faded with the scent of fear, to her death.

Ryuma considered. If she killed Unga and seized control of Mashuranbo, he was done for ...

_If_.

When they had spoken in his garden, she could have killed him. That was what she was trying to say before he had left the dream, she could ... but she hadn't. An offer of help she had tried to make. _She could have let you be killed by Gyasa, and she might have tried killing you in the garden. Did she? _... and Unga could have let him die too. For all the mockery he thought Yakumo's way of compassion and forgiveness was worthy of, to that way he owed his life. To these two so different beings. Yet Mashuranbo's world, the weak died before the strong.

Damn her stupid idealism.

He crawled up and went after her, just in time before she had entered the reversed gravity spiral. Stunned, she looked at him.

"Go back. I just realized I can't risk you accidentally destroying Mashuranbo altogether. But you better not do anything to Unga."

It was the first time she truly smiled at him.

**· · · · · · ·**

When Ryuma opened his eyes and jumped up, virtually at the same time, there was another thing he would see for the first time. The smirk of the true Mashuranbo, though still on the white face with the markings, was distinctly not welcome; a mocking amusement that accompanied the sword Ryuma had through his stomach an instant later.

Carelessly, Mashuranbo shoved the boy to the ground and turned to Unga. Using the bloodied sword, he tipped Yakumo off the bed's side. For whatever reason he decided to kill her later, it wouldn't be be anything good.

Ryuma lay face down, but was awake. Adrenaline kicked in and he went to hypermode, grabbing one of the healing cards on the ground and absorbing it in the process. So he forced rapid regeneration and all was quiet like a snake in the grass.

Just when Mashuranbo was about to put his sword through Unga's chest, Ryuma grabbed him at his cape and forcefully pulled him away. Mashuranbo promptly spun around and prepared to counted an attack, but Ryuma still held the cape, twisted it around his sword arm and so almost got a free shot himself. But Mashuranbo kicked him away while he himself collided with the wall. A rack of herbs and potions fell to the ground all around the samurai, drenching the small room in fumes. In the touch of aerial magic, Mashuranbo's facial markings glowing a little, and he smirked again.

"Oh look, he wants to play," he said as he flicked his weapon to a more convenient position, right before attack. Had Ryuma been anything slower than a snake Enterran, that speed and the small chamber would have been his death anyway.

Ryuma wondered why Mashuranbo wasn't just blowing up the entire place, rather than doing it the hard way by coming in here for a manual kill. For now Mashuranbo was just messing around, and even then Ryuma held the lower hand. He blocked Ryuma's attacks as if it was a mere game, he was not feared across the world for poor reasons. So why didn't he? Arrogance? Boredom? He was trying to reach Unga and kill her, yet that pointless hesitation was his weakness. If Mashuranbo wasn't exploding anything yet, Ryuma decided to take the first step in that. He really needed more room to fight. While he possessed no energetic explosions, he had an aquatic variant that could break rock just as well. One second he stepped back, coming so close to the bed his legs touched it.

Enough distance between him and Mushrambo now, he summoned an ice pillar and burst it open by sheer force of will. What followed with an explosion that had one superiority to energy : it had a direction. Full force it tore though the walls opposite of the bed, and Mushrambo went along quite unwillingly. Anything in Ryuma's direction remained untouched.

Pierced by splinters and with part of a wall on him, Mushrambo couldn't immediately get back onto his feet. A matter of seconds but enough. Ryuma quietly called for Grandora, using a whistle unheard by his enemy. The dragon was not too far off, hopefully.

"No time for this," Mushrambo said, as if only now he had realized his own freedom was at stake. He hadn't gotten up yet or a purple energy flickered in the palm of his hand, but right then Grandora's left head descended from above. In this second distraction, Ryuma jumped forth and forced Mushrambo to return to defensive mode. Grandora's jaws came from the one escape route and Ryuma drove him towards it. One unguarded moment, one avoidance of snapping jaws, one strain too much of a white web around a black card, and Ryuma found an opening. With a sharp cut, he had pierced Mushrambo's arm with his blade and ripped it open from elbow through hand.

The samurai's sword clattered onto the ground and Ryuma set his foot on it.

Mushrambo hatefully glared at him. "I _really_ have no time for this," he said as a familiar glow started to surround him. Ryuma knew what it was, the same explosion he had used on Zoar city down below, and the same he had used on many cities in the human times. What he didn't know was how to stop it.

He tried attacking again, but Mushrambo used his remaining hand to grab Ryuma's sword and twist it aside before kneeing Ryuma in the stomach. As Ryuma fell back, the golden energy broke from Mushrambo. Grandora shrieked as the wave his him and the same excruciating heat tore into Ryuma. Behind him he heard two cries, Yakumo and Unga as they were forcefully broken from their sleep ... Unga too.

"Mushrambo, stop!"

The god of destruction obeyed, froze where he was and all of the resentful expression melted away into a doll's face.

At this sudden end of chaos, there was a silence save for the howling of the wind.

Ryuma let go of a deep breath and collapsed to his knees. While physically less damaged than Mushrambo appeared to be, he had lost a dangerous amount of energy in that final attack.

Unga huffed and groaned as she got up from the bed. White ash seemed to fall from her skin, revealing her no more appealing but far more natural tone underneath. Wobbling, she crossed the distance between her and Ryuma, while her eyes remained fixed on Mushrambo. They said nothing to each other, not truly.

"I cannot restore what he destroyed of the hold on him. He'll be free some day ... but we can't kill him yet, for we still need him."

"Unga, what happened?"

"I'm not certain, my lord. I think Yakumo there was failing at removing the spell, but then ... did he release some sort of energy? I think she used his energy against him, much like he was using the web against me." She sighed. "I have a few things to tell you and you won't like it. But I suggest you follow her example first."

"You can say them now," he tried ordering. But to this she only shook her head. "I'll get this castle in order. We have a war to win, and made no progress at all ... you can start by getting a good night of sleep."

Unga walked to Mushrambo and ordered him to follow, and Ryuma didn't have the will or strength left to demand she do what he said.

A pale form in the corner of his eye moved. Yakumo didn't wake, but the grip of the astral plane had released her and she had slipped into an uneasy sleep. Pieces of rubble and glass lay atop her and the nearby bed, and the wind came in from far above, where a torn wall had reached the castle's hull. The cold was getting in.

Wearily he stood up and went to her. Shaking her shoulder didn't wake her, and so he lifted her up, which was easy enough in his grown form.

When he reached her room, he called twice. The servants didn't open immediately, perhaps fearful, if the scent was any indication. When he entered carrying Yakumo, that was joined by surprise and they stepped back respectfully. Only now did he really look at them, if only for a second. Aggression he spied, submerged in submission.

The kitten was still on the bed, but so small that there was plenty of space aside of her for Yakumo. The other two kits scurried about, equally resentful of him as the servants were, but the female kit only watched him with curious eyes and then sneezed. He carefully laid down Yakumo, and she pulled a handkerchief her own side closer while saying : "Is she alright? Did that mean blond guy hurt her again?"

"No. Mushrambo did." The other two noticed who he was, why didn't she? She sneezed again, ... there was something like catching a cold for mammals, if the bird Wired was correct. Something about impaired scent? No wonder she didn't know whom she spoke to.

"Oh ... did you help her then? You should come back when Yakumo feels better again, I'm sure she'd want to thank you."

"I doubt it."

"No really. Oh, and can you go tell that Ryuma guy that I'll pilot his machines if it helps Yakumo?"

"Uhm, Sanju, that's —" one of the twin kits tried, but didn't get far.

"I want to help uncle Kutal and Yakumo, and Sago and Mushra, but if that bird lady takes over this castle she'll kill Yakumo and take Mushrambo with her and then they'll go conquer the world and make everything bad."

"Oh really? I'll tell him if you're sure about what you're doing. You'll be in a lot of pain, and your form might change into something unrecognizable. See, your friend Yakumo has grown a violent streak, and might just attack him if you get hurt. That would cause a lot of problems."

"That's okay, Yakumo doesn't care for how anyone looks and I won't complain. I'll pilot that water thingy and then I will finally be strong enough to help my uncle and my friends!"

Ryuma found himself in a position where he could not shout in frustration _I am surrounded by idiots!_ and blame said idiots for any failure. Instead, he was the one who had made mistakes, and he was surrounded by idealists who seemed to be more in control of the situation than he was. Stupid, treacherous universe.

"Alright, I'll let him know."

**· · · · · · ·**

**Author's Note** : _Puce_ is the official name of the color used for Mashura's hair.


	12. Plot Statistics

**· · · · · · ·**

**· Chapte****r 12 · Plot Statistics ·**

**· · · · · · ·**

Nine billion is a statistic.

Her father had explained her about cognitive biases, about how _The End Of The World_ could once be discussed with calmness and detachment by people, a cliche to make sure one knew the villain of a story was bad without any emotion cost to burden the heroes. A prototype existed for suffering that one hadn't seen, and so statistics did little to impress anyone. Biases such as the Good Cause Dump played up to satisfy the hearer's need for moral satisfaction, within the limits of what they could spare. Yet these same people would be horrified at the loss of a beloved, and that they did when the war started.

During the war, rations had been given out to the hungry, but whether one had two starving children or ten only affected the extras given for as far as obligation went. And she found she herself could only feel pity for as far as she could imagine faces of those that suffered. Beyond that? That planet had been nothing but a malformed mass of corpses, and eventually, the horror made room for nothing, and she felt empty. Outside the window was the cold, inside here was the warmth and the kittens playing. Rei and Sen teased Sanju for not having recognized Ryuma, while Saki and Sakura dared to look happy, or at least content to entertain them.

Nine billion is a statistic, if it were not, she would not have survived a thousand times increase of sorrow. Neurobiology wasn't something she was familiar with, but it had been an important part of her father's science. It involved blending brains, after all, which he had explained in layman's therms to her. _Cause humans would never have to suffer feeling the same pain a thousand times larger, for pain is only a bunch of chemicals in our brain, be happy for that._ Even if it's compassion ...

Nine billion is a statistic, but she could understand it a little being going over memory one by one. The brother with his last starving sibling, her father with blood on his hands, the Enterran fleeing from humans. Not statistics. What her heart could not comprehend, her mind could clarify.

Ryuma? He probably didn't bother counting statistics to begin with. Threaten to destroy a village if she did not cooperate? Torture people, but use methods like crowns, lightning and ice that did not leave a mess behind? So what would happen if he were to really look at the prototype of suffering? He must have some good in him, somewhere, but it wasn't showing. Perhaps one day he might.

No, she couldn't let this get to her head. For all she knew, he might have meant it that he believed she would backstab him and seize control of Mushrambo somehow, and his change of mind had simply happened because he had discovered that there was no way for her to do so. Or he had thought she would not hold out long enough for him to complete undoing the blood spell.

So she weighed everything back and forth in her mind, unable to find a clear stance. Once she had been able to forgive people just because, but now that seemed to be ... still possible, but more complicated. Maybe it just had started to matter whether there was remorse before she could expend trust.

A storm outside betrayed nothing of the time of day when she had woken up and that same storm still raged now, but inside here it was comforting. She decided it was best if she would pay attention to this moment. Candles had been lit all over the place and it was not to be neglected she was in a castle and her handmaids had just now returned with plates of well scented food and the good news that Unga seemed to be well and in control of Mushrambo. They told her so with a knot and hand gestures, which they had clarified earlier would mean "yes" to her inquiry.

There was a table, but the bed was far more cozy and Sanju had to stay tucked in. So she asked for the plates to be set down in the center of the bed and everyone to gather around. As they ate, Saki and Sakura continued teaching Yakumo their sign language, though it was doubtful she would ever need the signs for "tasty", "sour" and "herbs". It didn't matter, it was fun and a good distraction from certain memories of dying nations and so called gods of destruction.

It was in this manner that Ryuma found them upon his arrival, sitting in a circle on the bed, crossed legged and laughing. But when they saw him in the door opening, those not silent already became it.

"Would you like to join us?" Yakumo asked to drive off that silence.

"I need no invitation for that."

"Then why did you come?"

"I recharged my own energy, I've come to heal you and that brat. She better keep her promise."

"Promise?" Yakumo said as she looked at Sanju.

"I'll pilot that water thingy and then I can help you!" the kitten declared happily. Ryuma stepped into the room, and promptly Saki and Sakura withdrew to the walls, to Yakumo's dismay.

"He should stick with the bigger form. He's even shorter than Yakumo in this form," Sanju said carelessly. He glared at her, but she was busy peeling at a little fish and did not notice.

"I don't think that's a good idea, she's too young!"

"I am not in the mood to argue, Yakumo." He took out one of the healing cards and sat down at the edge of the bed, back towards the plates. If they both looked aside, Yakumo and Ryuma could look each other in the eye, but neither felt compelled to do so.

"I want to, Yakumo! If he makes that seat thing into something less cold and thick I can do it! Please? I want to do something!" she pleaded with such large kitten eyes that Yakumo would have instantly said yes if it had involved anything other that a wish for warfare.

"Do you really understand what you will be doing?"

"She'll be handling a mecha that can freeze enemies. No card destruction involved. Those two can do it too." He did not ask and expected to be obeyed, and that he got. Rei and Sen had no intention of letting their little sister be the only one to fight, if only for the rule of cool.

"We will!" they shouted in tandem.

Yakumo had seen children forced into combat by resistance groups, some barely older than her. Some had even acted like this, cheerful and faithful, before reality sunk in. She remember a few faces of them, and the true number that belonged to them.

"Yakumo, we'll make a deal. You will assist in defending my domain from Rusephine and will tolerate my decisions. I will not order the crown to harm you, and I will not coerce you into participating in anything against your precious morals. You don't kill me, or Unga, I won't kill your kittens or anything you else you hold dear."

"I will agree insofar that means defending your domain only. I won't participate in any invasions."

"I thought as much. We will see how things go on after our victory over Rusephine." Oh, he meant to conquer her domain entirely and subject it to his whims, that had always been his plan. It was part of the world, after all. It became apparent to Yakumo he simply meant to hold her at bay until then. The wish he'd see his errors wasn't entirely devoid of cruelty.

"You had sided with those rebels. Can you get them to cooperate?" And she knew that look on his face, and that it was not to be trusted.

"Their decisions are not mine to make. Maybe." Yakumo turned so that her legs now were over the edge of the bed too. She held out her hand, but Ryuma looked at the gesture resentfully. Yakumo tilted her head a little. "Your marriage to me was performed in a very classical, human tradition, yet you frown upon this similarly human gesture? It's just a sign of trust."

She smiled again. He looked away, shifted and then stood up and was about to leave, when the door opened before him. It was Radure.

"My lord, if you are finished, Unga has called a meeting in the throne hall," he said with clear uncertainty.

"_Unga_ called a meeting?"

**· · · · · · ·**

Rusephine was displeased. Cannon. Once more. How much of these things were there, did they have them installed absolutely everywhere? It hadn't been in the city anymore after Ryuma had cleared it. Why hadn't they stayed? Had they known Ryuma was coming? She always conquered the domains by silently taking out their leaders. Dyhanger and Kimyras had been easy enough. Franken she had caught when they had banded together to kill Yakumo. In other words, she only experience with humans in warfare and small tribal conflicts. This was new.

A whole underwater city that could resist her. Those rebels, whatever their name was, had allied with them and given a vital edge. If everything went truly wrong, Ryuma would ally with them too, though that was more tact than she believed the little fool was capable of.

She made her decision.

The chosen room was sealed in all locations, nearly impossible to infiltrate through the astral plane and a contrast in all ways to Rusephine's otherwise elegant castle. Crude walls of extraterrestrial rock, but far more telling was the gold colored metal that lined all corners and the single door that allowed entrance. Simple black markings adorned it, forming spikes and sharp suns.

As she and Yuid walked down the hall this chamber, she could hear the others already, Karas, Rabe and Gabriel. The only others who would hear her story.

The tengu paced around restlessly until the gray winged angel said, "Calm down this instance! The queen is about to arrive!"

"Calm down? We are suffering a ridiculous defeat! Our superiority against a bunch of stick wielding lizards under the sea? How can we lose?"

"It may look like a humiliation to you, but our enemy is skilled and has a fair advantage," Gabriel said in a tone that hoped to shut up Karas, but never did.

"Advantage? They're idiots!"

"_You _can tell?"

If Karas were a drum and Gabriel a flute, the last, Rabe was the rustle of paper. He was another humanoid, but only insofar his form was concerned. Angelic in his triple set of limbs, arms, legs and wings on his back, he was otherwise entirely raven, covered with black feathers and a long bird's head. He wore no armor, unlike the other two, instead donned simple green robes. It was him who greeted the queen last upon her entrance, and the only one to greet Yuid.

Chairs there were none, only jutted rock formations offered a way to sit down somewhat comfortably. Even Yuid, huge tail and sail and all, was able to find a place. Rusephine herself was left the highest rock, no command given or needed. She signed them all to be quiet, and waited a moment as if to think it over one last time. Then she began.

"What I will speak of first only concerns Yuid, it will be common knowledge for the rest of you. But pay attention nonetheless, for its worth will change by the end of the story," she told her three Hands. "The human culture that we are created bye was far more advanced than the world we have now. Paving, Internet, hospitals, and so on ... yet most Enterrans do not have any sort of technology save for what they inherited from humans, and they only use it in the most crude of forms. Why do you think that is? I used to blame solely the humans for their tendency to engineer Enterrans to be stupid. However, I've come to understand that Mushrambo was also at fault. With him killing off anything intelligent enough to know random rampage is pointless, the entire globe was left in a degraded state.

My nation is small in number due to selective breeding. General intelligence has increased by not allowed the foolish to have children. We have technology and culture more refined than even the humans. We do not kill the dumb, we merely give them jobs that suit them and neuter them. Given that we've been doing so for the past 300 years, there is great improvement in the bird nation. It can be done for the other races.

The world I would create would see all of Enterra raised from its lowly status that both humankind and Mushrambo have left us in. You've seen my empire, Yuid. Do you think I can do it?"

He hesitated, but less because if doubt on her claims than doubt on how to answer. More miracles he had seen in the past few days than in his entire life. Machines that moved without magic, respect for laws without force ... he certainly wanted to believe it was true. It wasn't exactly like he would imagine the perfect culture — that would involve more emphasis on strength — but it was undoubtedly superior to the state Ryuma left his empire in.

"Perhaps," was all that his remaining loyalty to the reptile domain allowed him to say.

"Sadly, I will most likely fail. Either Mushrambo, Yakumo or Mushra will put an end to it. So I have taken steps to ensure that Mushrambo will not be freed. I have contacted your court wizard, Unga, and I've given her the information she would need to construct the card in a way that would allow Mushrambo to obey. He would not have done so otherwise."

Yuid tensed up, the other three also raised their heads in surprise. Here was the new information, and it was not the military strategy they had been expecting.

"Why did you?" Yuid said.

"Because I die in every universe where Yakumo breaks the black card and goes on to Mechano City. And sooner or later, whether I blow up the place or not, Mushra will head my way and kill me and whichever of my people gets in his way, and a few who don't get in his way.

What I am about to tell you I have already told Unga, and she agreed only because of this. Yuid, my element is time itself, like other Enterrans belong to water, fire or wind. Every time I die, I send my consciousness to my past self. This creates a new continuity the moment I change by past decisions. We are in the 59th new timeline now. At first I sent back my awareness weeks, then months, then years, until I relived my entire life an an attempt to find a world where I survive. A world where I can stop Yakumo from returning the humans who force us to be their dumb slaves."

Karas was silent because he understood what it meant, but had nothing to say and nothing to direct rage at, so nothing he did.

Gabriel was silent because he understood that the number meant a large chance of repeated failure, if his queen had been unable to change her fate for so often.

Rabe was silent because that was what he always did.

"In some of the earliest versions of history, I died in tandem with Mushrambo. I could feel time end before I returned to the past, I presume the universe was destroyed due to a certain time paradox, but I cannot be certain. I am telling this to Yuid because I hope he will understand the importance of obtaining Mushrambo's service and keeping him separate from Yakumo. I would have rather have had that Unga had handed me control, but she is unfortunately loyal to Ryuma alone."

All this she told with her usual angelic calmness, but grace had left her eyes.

"Queen Rusephine, forgive me for speaking as I am about to do, but ... you died fifty nine times. I don't even ... are you ..." Rabe tried.

"It is not the first time you have asked me that, Rabe," she sighed. "You never know how to put it, cause the answer seems obvious. And again answer that I do not know how I am doing. That's the most excruciating ... not the prospect of death itself. I lost my old self along the way. Once I also wanted nothing but power. I would sacrifice my own troops like it was nothing, just because they were in the way. That Rusephine no longer exists, nor do her ideals ... now I don't just die, but a world that should be dies with me.

Why did he blow up the dome where the last humans had taken refuge, yet not the one Yakumo was in? Why did he spare those four so often, when he has no pretenses about killing anything else? He could have just ... one energy bomb. Throw one energy bomb on Yakumo's dome, like with Center ... yet he never does it for some reason. If he had survived, who knows what the world would have been like?" He voice had faded to a whisper, not distressed, not angry, but fascinated. She laughed a little, and to all but Yuid the sound spelled danger.

But she regained her composure, sat back down on the stone and said, "You may perhaps notice it is affecting my spirit, but do not worry. I've done a few timelines in insanity already, I've learned to cope. Whether I like it or not." She stood up and brushed her hands across the walls behind her. "This room is made of the meteorite that tilted the war in favor of us Enterrans. Two energy cores had separated from it, one going to Yakumo, the other to Mushrambo. Why those two I do not know, nor what kind of a matter is able to sever us from this world's reality, like this room hides us from all scrying."

Of her three most trusted, it was Karas who spoke the first, that which the more logical didn't want to consider yet : "Something is playing a game."

"Another thing I have heard before, and I've come to agree over the centuries. There are certain rules, like how nobody will go through with killing Mushra unless something is around that can revive him, like how nobody will remember their full powers when that could threaten any of those four, or how those kittens always pop up at the most ludicrously convenient places. Their exact purpose I have not yet figured out, but it works against me."

Both Gabriel and Karas tried to say something, but Rusephine silenced them with a gesture of her hand.

"Yuid, you now knew a dangerous truth, and so you have become a pawn like me and the others. One that may make a difference for the better or the worse. Think about it. I will hear your answer tomorrow evening."

**· · · · · · ·**

"You _conspired with Rusephine_?"

Ryuma sat on his throne, which now had a smaller throne aside of it, but Yakumo made no use of it and was seated at a round table below the stairs, with the others. Those consisted of Vertigo, Aiskek, Merebeded and Radure, all with the same baffled expression as their emperor. Unga sat midway between the throne and the table, on the stairs, taking in the response with trained indifference.

But Yakumo looked from face to face, more interested trying to discern the reptile expressions and remember them, for she could not read them well yet. To her, the revelation was hardly impressive, she already knew that Unga would break the rules if it was for Ryuma's sake. Not to mention this small, benign pseudo-treachery didn't quite measure up to the idea that her father might have intended for her to be a weapon of mass destruction.

The benefit of a chaotic yet short lifespan as that of Yakumo was not shared by the others. They were drilled to a certain security in what to expect of Unga and Ryuma, lulled into a pattern of catering to Ryuma's whims for years on end. Unga had always been a beacon of rationality for them, so the concept of 'Unga conspired with the enemy' swayed them to shock and disbelief. Sure, Ryuma wiping out his only cities to recruit them as soldiers was horrible, but plausible. Unga on the other hand ... was now holding control of Mushrambo and had insulted Ryuma four times already.

Oh, and then there was that thing with recycling the universe.

"Maybe Rusephine is the cause of Mushrambo's rebellion?" Aiskek said after a while, hoping more to avert outrage than truly thinking it over.

"No, I was there and have seen it. That web was alien, but Unga controlled it. Mushrambo needs no help of will," Yakumo said.

"She is right, Unga is in control." _And I am not. Heck, even Yakumo knows more about it_. "And I'm rather curious as to why you never told me," Ryuma said.

Undeterred by his sharp tone, Unga replied, "Apparently there was a timeline where I _did_ tell you. You promptly acted like a stubborn ass, insisted you could control Mushrambo without the spell and we all died. Again."

"Oh really? Maybe Rusephine just lied."

"Or maybe you've been crowbar assaulted by the human you owe your life to and in the process of gathering up yourself, you also picked up your discarded reasoning and put it back in place by accident, and thanks to that we are not dead yet." Unga apparently had patience that she was letting run out. "Well guess what, my lord, I have magic powers too and tested the visions. They were clean as a slate, yet did not happen in this universe. Do you know which universes are the ones where Rusephine lasts longest? Those where Rusephine disguised herself and managed to point out to Hakuba that going to the reptile domain was utterly pointless. He went to the robot city instead, and they found out about Mushrambo a lot later or not at all, let alone did you control him."

"She still died in those timelines," Ryuma pointed out.

"Just saying that your stupidity speeds up things quite a bit. No Gyasa, no wedding ... ugh. We're probably going to die in this universe too. But that's one thing you never listen to. According to Rusephine, you already had your eyes on her when you four generals visited her in the dome. She described it in rather amusing therms, something along the lines of _Wow, it's a girl! A non reptilian girl! Must have girl._ There hasn't been a single timeline where she could persuade you of giving her up, and you fail at killing her too," Unga said, before running out of breath. Not to say she was anywhere near done ranting. No, she had a few years of stock left. "Hey, at least you've got something in common beyond human looks. You both like standing on balconies to make dramatic declarations. You should do it together some time."

The three ministers, encouraged by Unga's daring attitude, didn't try very hard to retain their snickering, though Radure had no humor left. Yakumo became a little red and Ryuma looked positively murderous again.

"Fine. I'll admit I'm having some objections to harming her. For example, the reason none of my ministers are currently being electrocuted is because she's at the table too."

They immediately fell silent.

"Excellent. Can we now focus on that invasion?" Ryuma said. He then nodded at Yakumo, a sign she should speak.

"Rusephine initially wanted to conquer our domain by taking out all the Megalopolis. The rebels caught her off guard and she does not know their range is a lot more limited than their weapon implies. So expecting them to show up at the cities, she changed tactics. The riverland will be harder to conquer due to the islands that encircle it. But once she had it, she can simply stab right into the reptile domain, towards these mountains.

The rebels meanwhile were intent on meeting her at every megalopolis, wipe out part of her army and then strike once they were thinned out, depending on the robots to turn on the birds at some point. Especially after I had joined them —"

"You actually _joined_ them?" Radure asked. "And we are to trust you ... hmmph."

"Off course I did, they offered me freedom and a chance to save many innocent lives. Now, after I had joined them it would have been very easy to get the robots to cooperate, since they are still loyal to the human race. That's how they are programmed. They did not anticipate Rusephine to even risk the riverlands, but none of them was able to clearly predict what Ryuma's tampering with the weather in these mountains causes. Hakuba was here and could calculate it. A few days ago, there was an unexpected gale that was benign enough for the stronger birds to fly, but caused quite a bit of turmoil in the waters. As a south west wind it—"

"Alright, enough already. They had a chance. They took the chance. But the rebels were there in time and helped them out. So what do we do now?"

"We stay here, off course," Unga said. "Send Mushrambo to assist the riverlands and further thin out Rusephine's armies."

"If I understand correctly, she wants the riverlands because there is an underwater settlement?" Merebeded said, looking at the map within the table with some difficulty. "Can't we have a lower table?"

Ryuma sighed and raised the table's magic map to be a holographic form above it.

"So, if she has the riverlands she will have a solid base to piece into the solid continent and spread from there. But she probably didn't it before because conquering the Megalopolis would be easier. Still, rebels or not, city or not, it's strange ... she seems to be in a rush," Merebeded said.

"How did the rebels even get there in time?"

"Yakumo's robot can teleport when given enough energy," Ryuma said.

"Where would they get enough energy?" Aiskek wondered.

"That's for later," Ryuma said as he stood up and summoned Mushrambo. He knocked the doors out of their hinges as he entered and knelt.

"Mushrambo. Here is your order. Fly to the Kingdom of Rivers. Drive off the bird invaders you will find there." He set his hand before his eyes as if they hurt him, or he wanted to hide, then he added, "Try to keep my citizens alive while you're at it. And the doors whole."

**· · · · · · ·**

Messengers and astral letters were sent out across the reptile domain, but it soon proved any attempt to unite the realm would fail. The governors almost unanimously responded with aggression : Ryuma's stunt at the megalopolis had spread a not so nice word. They had little reason to trust him before and they had less reason now.

Ryuma had withdrawn again, now focusing entirely on designing the water mecha. Yakumo had already exhausted her knowledge of technology in this regard and did not have the mind to learn new things, for Unga was reviving the cards that Ryuma had brought along. It was a tedious process of finding usable citizens and speaking to them while they were within their cards, to find out whether they were willing to aid or not. Paranoia of betrayal was a strong factor, especially now the governors had turned their back on the ice castle and no promises could be made on their behalf.

The few revived fell under Yakumo's care. For as long as mammals were limited, they had no choice but to rely on the largest reptiles to be pilots and Yakumo's task was instructions amongst other things. While she was glad that at least Ryuma wasn't coercing anyone at this time, she was worried for the kittens. She didn't see them very much over the passing of the next day, since he used them the most for testing his mecha.

The next morning, the kittens were already gone and had taken the breakfast packages she and her handmaids prepared the night before. The moment she had a free spot in her schedule — which had drastically altered from walking around the castle looking pretty — she went down to the arena. But first a stop to the kitchen, from which she reemerged with a plate containing some food and tea.

Upon arrival, the silence struck her. Though some court members had split, the remainder was busier than ever, especially with the new recruits. But down here, there was only a far off sound of cracking ice. After some searching, she found them in the second last arena. Two of the water golems were aside, the third was in the middle. Yakumo stayed on the balcony for a moment to watch.

It had evolved from the crude, robot-like design of the blueprints into an elegant structure that nonetheless relied on mechanics. Shy little Sanju piloted it, here she showed her heritage as a cat and the strength of her uncle's lion power. Like the fish in the river that escapes the stones on their way, she danced through a landscape that constantly hurled obstacles at her, curtsy of Ryuma who sat at the far end to control the magic. At moments he lowered intensity, only for Sanju to demand he continue; she was indeed enjoying herself.

Seeing that only saddened Yakumo, knowing what this game soon would involve.

By the time she arrived down Rei was taking his turn and a seriously exhausted but thrilled Sanju came to the side, where Sen offered her a towel to wrap herself in. A little fire was nearby, and they crawled close to it. Sanju still had a cold, if the sneezing was any indication, but Ryuma had kept word and healed the kitten's injuries.

"After all these years, still no cure for the common cold," Yakumo whispered bemused. Ryuma didn't seem to hear her though, or he ignored her deliberately. He was working at a makeshift ice table that projected a holographic design of the mecha. When she placed down the plate aside of him, he looked up in annoyance.

"Why are you here?"

"I just wanted to see how Sanju, Rei and Sen are doing. Then I thought you'd be overworking yourself again so I made a small detour to the kitchen."

He looked insulted. "Whatever makes you think_ that_? I'm not as weak as you are."

"I just make sure I see the world as it is," she said as if it had never been anything but simple. "And in my 'world', seeing someone tired means I take care of them. You should take a break and eat something."

"Just because we are cooperating now does not mean you get to order me around."

"It was advice, not a command. If there is a court protocol that dictates how advise should be given to you, you have never taught me, your majesty." She pushed the plate a little closer and turned to the kittens. Behind her, she heard him reluctantly taking the cup.

"Hey, how are you doing?" she said as she sat down the two.

"Yakumo!" Sanju crawled onto her lap at once and Sen called for Rei. Ryuma cursed something when the kitten suddenly dropped out of magic mode, causing the golem to splatter onto the ground as mere water and an incoming ice spike to almost crush him. The kitten hardly noticed, shook out his fur and ran to Yakumo.

Following was a long story with many words, for to the kittens their small progress in the art of combat was bigger than their life. Ryuma ignored them entirely, but when Yakumo was ready to return upstairs — a little less worried about the kittens now — the plate was empty. She took it along.

Once on the viewpoint that overlooked the arena, she stopped again to see the next kitten return to their practice.

"Hello, lady Yakumo," someone behind her said. A little startled, she turned. On the throne that Ryuma once had used to overlook the games sat a crocodile Enterran, covered by the shadows with the light reflecting in his eyes. But she sighed in relief when she recognized the silhouette.

"Oh, Easchu, you are still here?"

The crocodile grinned meekly, she could see the shine on his teeth. "Oh yes, the recent developments are marvelous. I do not want to miss it and I'm glad to see you're holding your head above water. If I may suggest ... you now have Ryuma in a position that could be used to your benefit."

Yakumo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We know he has some sort of soft spot for you, however warped. Play into it until you have what you want."

"_No_. I have no mind for manipulation, like he does. I'm already compensating on my standards more than enough," she said sharply.

"So you're just holding onto your morals to make yourself feel better? You are the entirety of humankind, I guess you have a reputation to uphold."

That _hurt_, particularly because one, it had been true once.

"I hold onto them to keep myself from changing too much. Now please, let's discuss something else. You've helped me before arranging a map, could you help me again? I have to meet a ambassador of some sorts in a few hours and I know nothing still of reptile protocol."

He nodded and slipped off the throne, and with that his entire posture returned to that of nothing but a dismissive servant. But Yakumo would remember.

**· · · · · · ·**

A billion waves, a thousand islands and single sun; a billion thoughts, a thousand warriors and a single doll of destruction.

All people of the waters broke into cheering as the remainder of the bird army fled, but Ogin only had a weary smile to share. Far above her in the sky was the lone blue shape of Mushrambo, who had come like the stray arrow that carried the lethal poison to an attacking giant, where all other arrows only slowed it down.

"Why are they retreating?" one of her lieutenants wondered as they saw the birds scatter away in all directions, and take their airships with them.

"Duh, they lost!" another called happily.

"No, they are not merely relocating, see the ships in the distance move as well," Ogin said.

"Off course, otherwise Mushrambo will get them."

She didn't trust it. Mushrambo had stopped moving, and his orders were to do no more than drive off the invaders. Ogin knew by divination, so Rusephine probably knew as well. It was left to be seen whether he would actually be able to cooperate with the riverfolk in this mindless state, why didn't Rusephine wait to see whether they would fail? She had already given up on her first tactic, that she would give up on her second so quickly ... no.

Around her, all celebrated, her rebels and the riverfolk and the seafolk. But Ogin found her way inside her appointed chamber and conjured up her magic waters.

"Oh," was all she said, after less than a minute of scrying.

"Is ... is something wrong?" asked on of her soldiers, who had followed her and her worries.

"It seems Rusephine got a hold of a member of Ryuma's court, and he sided with her a mere quarter of an hour ago. She made him watch Mushrambo's rampage and he for some reason was convinced by ... something. I can only hear what her court says about, but Rusephine has been told how she can invade the castle without Ryuma even noticing, and for us, that means that soon we may expect an invasion from the north."

**· · · · · · ·**

**Author's Note : **_The reason for the increase of updates lately is that someone on dA pointed out they'd lost interest in this story due to the slow updates. So, I've tried writing this story faster, but it turns out it doesn't actually make any difference in regards to the response I get. Well, if I'm not having fun with the story — canon's plot holes and contrived coincidences do not cooperate — and there is no audience either, there's no point in it. Might just as well not write unless I feel like it, and that won't be anytime soon as it stands. __From hence forth, this story is on hiatus. _


	13. Kitten Bombs

**· · · · · · ·**

Yakumo's dream had become considerably more complicated over the past week. Once it had simply been : "_March to Center, say the right things that will move everyone's hearts and peace will be_".

Now she was dreaming of empires with complex infrastructures, health care and a fair justice system. Had she found other humans before her imprisonment she would not have been able to bring peace, she may even have been forced to be their weapon. Maybe such a thing had already happened in one of the past timelines, an abhorrent realization that nevertheless gave her comfort. As unpleasant as her current situation was, she now was somewhere where she could make a difference.

"Should I be suspicious of your good mood?" croaked a familiar voice. Yakumo looked up at Unga.

"Do you find a reason to be?" Yakumo said with a smile. The crone shrugged and walked over to the table.

"What'cha doing?" she asked, leaning over the papers on which Yakumo had been drawing — few reptilians possessed actual written language, but they knew their way around drawings well.

"Ensuring that everyone gets the food they need. I never had an idea how much different stomachs there would be. Some can only eat vegetables, others only rotting meat, and it all needs to be equally distributed too."

"Stronger ones should get more food. They're gonna be more useful," Unga said.

"That will only mean the weaker will die sooner and —"

"Shut it! Should I make Ryuma attentive of this and have _him_ give orders on this matter, hm?"

Yakumo pressed her lips together and glared back, but offered no more protest. As long as she was in charge, she could still ensure some fairness. With Ryuma that chance was blown.

"Good girl," Unga said, then looked around the room. "Now, ... you there."

The appointed servant, Easchu, stepped into the room.

"Once she is done, escort her to the throne room. Lord Ryuma has ordered a formal dinner."

The crocodile nodded with a bow and stepped to the wall, waiting.

When Unga was gone, Yakumo breathed out a sigh of relief and shoved the papers aside. The ice table before her still shimmered with scrying magic.

"What's wrong, lady Yakumo?"

"Nothing, I was just watching an old ..." The crocodile simulated a smirk as well as he could, tapping his head once.

"Old mail? Or new?"

He was onto her, heavens knew how.

"I ... I have an alliance with the rebels. They should have contacted me already. All we receive is one good report after another, but no word from them.

The crocodile nodded, seemingly unsurprised at her revelation. "I figured you would have something else cooking in secret. If you had been using the scrying power to find humans, the time you keep that magic active would have to be longer."

"How did you know? Neither Ryuma nor Unga realized I can use the silver serpents this way."

"Ryuma controls weather and water, but not life. I noticed the serpent you placed into that table breathing. I'm not the only one ... be glad so few servants enjoy chatting with their lord when he is tired. But ... you can talk to him. Maybe you should tell him that something is keeping the information from coming in?"

He had a point. She could always tell him she had been searching for Center and noticed it because of that.

Yakumo indeed found Ryuma at dinner, though he arrived late and ruffled, and simple continued scribbling in a holographic program before even looking at his food. Yakumo and the kittens had already gone through one course by the time he was done.

It was best to have him at ease when speaking to him, so she waited till he had eaten some before breaking the subject.

There he sat at the other end of the table, suddenly trying his very best to uphold his aristocratic air. That's what this all was about, formal dinners, ice castles : still trying to play the emperor. In a way, he was his own puppet.

"Ryuma, I—" she said loudly to reach the other end of the table.

"_Lord _Ryuma," he barked back.

"Kits, come," Yakumo said. She lifted Rei and Sen on the table and handed them her plate. Sanju carried the smaller plates of her and her brothers, while Yakumo herself dragged her chair along.

"What are you doing? I didn't give you permission to do that!"

"We can't have a proper conversation with this long table between us. I'm sitting next to you."

"I don't want those furballs anywhere near my food, they'll get hair in it!"

"They've been bathed this morning, there should be no problem," Yakumo said as she arranged her chair at the right corner of Ryuma's.

"No?" He lifted a yellow strand from his food. "Look what just blew onto my food."

"That's your own, Ryuma. None of the kittens have long curly hair." Yakumo barely refrained from adding something about his current bathing habits. Not that he reeked yet, but in contrast to before it was apparent he'd been neglecting himself.

Ryuma glared at the treacherous hair, then tossed it away and transferred that glare to Yakumo.

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk. I think there is a barrier that prevents us from getting any message from the riverlands outside of the reports of Mashuranbo's actions."

"So what? There's nothing but his success to tell us about, we're winning!"

Yakumo played with a leaf on her plate, considering whether she really wanted to lie about her actions. Maybe it was necessary to make him listen now, but if he found out in the future ... she needed his trust, a lie could destroy that so easily. Besides, telling him she'd been searching for Center might be interpreted as an escape attempt ... no.

"It is a select passage, so you won't notice. I was looking at ... I was working on our food distribution and sources when I noticed it. For example, we don't have fish, which some of our recruits need to survive. This could be solved by —"

She'd never said that the food division was how she had found out, only that that was the time she had come to the conclusion. If Ryuma's lack of thinking things through properly was anything to be relied on, he wouldn't notice that.

"Nonsense, I would know about it if there was an astral barrier."

Off course, there was also his pride to prevent him from _any _sort of logical conclusion.

"Ryuma, will you just for one moment consider _you might be wrong_?"

"_Lord _Ryuma!"

"No, but I'm willing to turn _brat_ into a title," Yakumo said.

If looks could kill, nobody would be using that phrase as a metaphor and the world would look very differently. For one thing, it would be full of people who killed people whom they really would not want dead. Yakumo understood this all too well, so Ryuma's efforts to intimidate her were fruitless.

"Why is the table shaking?" Sanju said.

"It is?" Yakumo looked at the kittens, all of which had stopped eating and were with their tiny paws on the table.

"I think so too! It feels just like when we're in the water golems, whenever we smash into the walls! But I think it's much farther away," Rei and Sen both said.

Ryuma lightly rested his fingers on the table and felt.

"We're under attack!" Ryuma stood up at once, left his anger at the table and was out of the room before Yakumo could even react.

**· · · · · · ·**

With utmost silence, Lucifen landed on the icy ridge. The mutants in the canyon were snarling and howling at the invaders, but a spell kept them from climbing up. The same spell would have triggered an alarm when anyone entered or left the canyon, but Ryuma's minister had given her the words to bypass it.

About twenty elite soldiers landed at her side. The only general she had taken along was Rabe; Karas and Gabriel led armies, their absence would have been noticed too quickly. Though she prevented the riverlands from sending particular messages to the castle, she would rather have the riverland resistance would only knew she had the Himalaya when it was too late for them.

Rabe had a station at Mechano City and it was not uncommon for him to not be seen for several days on end. His elite soldiers were specialized in quick, painless cardings. _Silent _cardings. Noise was reserved for the diversion army outside, which was firing at the castle from the sky.

Ryuma's storms could generate electromagnetic pulses of a variety most harmful to her technology oriented troops. As such, her diversion troops were hopelessly underpowered and would easily be defeated once Ryuma summoned an ice storm.

Lucifen had not told them they were just a diversion and had given them a complex plan to execute, so they would not retreat to hastily. They had to honestly believe they would achieve something, lest the ruse was cracked too soon. No matter how loyal her soldiers were, they would always be one or two not loyal enough once they learned they were on a kamikaze mission.

Rabe looked back, to the far end of the canyon. A glimpse of the sacrifice army was visible there. His face was as expressionless as a raven would be, but she knew him well enough to guess what he thought.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, "It is necessary."

"I know, my queen," he said as he turned to her. "Let us hope our informant was truthful, so it can end without being a wasted necessity."

Rabe always said something like this whenever she had to make a sacrifice. In my timelines, she had answered it would not be in vain with certainty. After so many worlds of failure, she kept her hope silent.

They entered through what appeared an ordinary cave.

Lucifen had been in this castle once. In practice, she had gone through the same event a few times, but a close eye had always been on her and she had been unable to thoroughly explore. Like his son, the Ryuzen had a knack for scrying and would know if she had done anything he did not like. Most of her information came from Ryuma's treacherous minister.

The arenas and dungeons were below ground but the primary castle was up a lone cliff that had only a few passages leading up, which would be guarded and enchanted. While in any ordinary situation that location would be a weak spot to the bird army, the weather made it a bigger problem than conquering the subterrenean part of the castle.

A maze of small passages led them through the dungeon, which lay between the canyon and the underground arenas. This location was to make it more convenient for discarded prisoners to be throw to the wildlings down there. At the time Ryuma's father had ruled, the prisons had always been full with humans and traitors, but now they were nearly empty, much to her surprise.

It made sneaking up to the arenas easier, but she worried what this meant. Ryuma couldn't have simply grown a conscience, so where were his toys? The dimetrodon hadn't said anything about empty prisons, so something had to have changed recently.

They reached the arenas without much trouble and here Lucifen saw another worrisome thing. In the dusk, she could see strange frozen constructs lay around, like ice sculptures of robots. The scent of reptile was in the air thickly, though none were heard or seen. The halls lay before them in a state clearly used, with damaged ice and a bit of blood.

"Ryuma has been training an army, it seems," Rabe said as the ground walked past the edge of one of the pits.

"I can tell that much. That would explain the lack of prisoners, he hasn't had time anymore to play. What I'm more curious about is these things," she said as she walked to the nearest ice sculpture. It seemed entirely harmless, but still, it was too random.

She knelt down and wiped some of the surface shivers of ice away and tried peering through the sculpture. Nothing but ice and some rocks ... wait, ... round rocks with a glimmer of magic emanating from them. Her heartbeat increased when she realized this had to be a weapon. The butterfly effect had the uncanny ability to ruin all her plans. These were a lot of butterflies.

"My queen, we have company," Rabe whispered. Her head snapped up and she looked where Rabe pointed.

At the far end of the pit three kittens emerged from a passage.

"Sanju, you can't do that!"

"But we're the best, we gotta help them!"

Those three cousins of Kutal.

Rabe and his group visibly relaxed, but Lucifen tensed up more.

Their uncle had lived in North America, they went on a journey to find him and landed in the middle of the Asian rainforest despite having no transport, rations or method of travel and yet they happened to be right at the same spot where Yakumo's group emerged from hyperspace. That coincidence was beyond contrivance, _it was impossible_. As humans had liked to say, it was like getting the middle finger from destiny.

Behind her, Rabe gave the signal for the kittens to be captured before they could raise the alarm.

A masochistic sense of curiosity overwhelmed Lucifen. What would go wrong now?

Her soldier was quick, but not quick enough. The moment the kittens saw him, they darted to the nearest ice sculptures. Right into them.

The soldier stopped in shock and she heard Rabe take in air. Even she herself was amazed at the sight.

Three aquatic armors of ice and drifting liquid rose up, drawing in the water around them to grow larger. They were like robots, but with a mobility far beyond them. Within seconds, the kittens were replaced by a triple tidal wave enforced with razorsharp ice.

The soldier nearest to them was grabbed by a water tentacle and instantly frozen. He shattered apart and a card drifted to the ground.

"Retreat!" Lucifen called.

Barely had the birdfolk reentered the passages or the waterrbots collided with the wall. It took them only seconds to flow into the passage, adapting their form as easily as water did. Within a glance over her shoulder, Lucifen saw the kittens inside, in a bubble of air surrounded by the magical stones; their conductors she guessed.

No choice but to run.

"We won't let you hurt Yakumo!" the female kitten screeched. Through the water, the tiny voice merged distorted and hollow. Within the span of that sentence, she lost three more soldiers.

The passages were not wide enough to fly and did not slow down their attackers, so the birds fled into the next arena. The moment they could fly, they took to the air. A few seconds to think were all they got, because the kittens drew together more water and grew into the air as an upward waterfall. The heads and arms of the aquatic bots had merged together, but halfway to the ceiling they separated again and reached for the scattering birds.

Lucifen barely managed to pull Rabe out of the way.

"Go the the balcony," she ordered him. "Continue upward and reach a mirror chamber!"

"But queen, I —"

"You are not strong enough to deal with this, but you can take over this castle's magic!" she said.

A grasping hand tentacled their way and they shot to another part of the massive hall. From there, she pushed Rabe in the direction of the balcony and hoped his memory was as good as hers when it came to the map.

One of the kittens saw him and tried to give chase, catching him by the leg. Lucifen acted at once. In the rush of her descent, she transformed into her battle mode and unleashed her sonic wave straight at the kitten.

It worked long enough for Rabe to get away, but did not do the damage it should have done on such weak Enterrans.

"What are you doing, kids? Bothering with the ordinary soldiers and not the queen?" she called.

Even if they were cats with all their sharp senses and equipped with amazing magic, they were still children and fell for it blindly. All three of them turned to her. Who remained of the soldiers didn't need an order to follow Rabe.

The kittens surrounded her and Lucifen was struck by the ridiculousness of the situation. A mighty bird like her being threatened by these tiny cats. Then again, that was what technology made possible and she had some admiration for that.

If she wanted to, she could easily blow up the entire castle, but that would just destroy the magical core that Ryuma had here to control the weather, not to mention it would ruin her cover. So she kept it with a low key energy attack, delivering one in each direction.

The waterarmors, at that point mostly ice, were throw back and liquefied. The energy absorbed into the water and simply conducted right into the ground, where the water had melted. The moment it was led off, it froze again.

Dammit. It looked like she was going to have to play mouse.

Lucifen dove into the passages again and ran. At every corner, she stopped to release a sonic wave at her stupid pursuers. This way she bought herself time out of the kitten's disorientation.

Through the passages, she found a small storage chamber and dove into it, then kept perfectly quiet.

Surrounded by water like that, the cats would be unable to smell and hear as well as they could normally. Ryuma did not seem to have made an adaption for that; if he had done so, her sonic attack would not have been hampered by the water.

She took out the cards of the three generals she had already killed and considered her options. Kraken's aquatic powers would come in very handy right now, but there was one mayor drawback. If one absorbed female Enterrans they retain consciousness and would have their face stick out of the absorber's chest or stomach, an obvious weakness. Lucifen suspected that the humans that had designed the encards had some serious sexism problems, because so far she had found no other rhyme or reason to this gender specific feature.

She didn't look forward to dealing with Kraken's mind, but it was her best choice. For good measure, she absorbed Chimeras too. He had been ruler of a the mythic beasts and controlled phantom energy, an element she could use for influencing lifeforce, in other words, a way to knock out a creature with low energy cost. More importantly right now, it also allowed her a little control over what she became.

A long, barbed tail emerged below her wings. Her legs morphed into a tail with sharp fins and two horns grew on her head. Scales covered her legs and her armor morphed into something that covered more than just her torso. For the first time since she had entered the mountains, she felt warm again.

Kraken's awareness dripped into hers as the sea queen's face emerged from her stomach and merged with the armor. She was deeply annoyed and resentful and wondered how to hinder Lucifen, but most overpowering though was the humiliation. Chimeras was blissfully unaware.

"~ For what it's worth, I've been there too," Lucifen offered quietly, then fought off the emotions and concentrated.

She recalled the map and dove into the nearest open space, an intersection of several passages. Harnessing all her energy for the deciding moment, she called out, "Where are you, little fools? Afraid already?"

For extra measure, she slammed her tail against the nearest solid piece of ice and shattered it. If those water senses worked anything like she thought, they'd come.

The available energy of these two generals was at best enough to give herself maybe two, three seconds of frozen time. It would seep all her power, large energy attacks were out of the question, so she would need them to be within range.

They arrived at almost the same time. From three sides, they dove onto her as a mass of frozen spikes. Almost idly, Lucifen wondered whether they understood what it was like to kill.

Then she froze time.

With her hands and tail, she aimed tiny energy beams of Chimeras' making at the kittens. In this state energy could only travel by her will, not distracted by any moving particles. The kittens were hit easily.

Time continued and the waterarmors fell apart. The unconscious kittens dropped to the ground and Lucifen staggered on her feet.

To Kraken's amusement, Lucifen had to lean against the wall to fight off a wave of pain in her limbs and head. She started to realize Kraken had messed with her water control and her body felt dried out. She forced the sea queen's power to replenish her, which took a brief but intense mental struggle.

Time freezing was a great power, but exhausting because it needed energy not just for the time magic, but also light magic, mass magic, air magic and a multitude of other things that kept her from being killed by her own powers and orient herself. It took her a moment to fully recharge, and even then she was at low power.

Once she could stand straight again, she walked to the nearest kitten and picked it up. The male with green vest, called either Rei or Sen; she had never bothered learning their names. Casually, she snapped his neck and caught the emerging card between two fingers, crumbling it her hand.

She was about to pick up the next kitten when a sound reached her ears.

A crocodile Enterran emerged from one of the passages, grinning widely, or perhaps he was just out of air. It was hard to tell with that sort.

"I'm so sorry, bird queen, but my leader would find these little ones very interesting."

Out of his mouth shot a frog tongue, drawing in the two remaining kittens. With them in still between his teeth, he turned tail and raced off.

Lucifen was about to pursue, but was hit with another wave of dizziness. Once it passed, she could no longer hear where the crocodile had gone. In this maze, she stood no chance to find him anymore.

She felt Kraken's face on her stomach snickering.

"Shut up!" Lucifen snapped.

Forcing herself to recompose, she set off to join Rabe and hoped nobody in this castle knew how to heal up those damn cats.

**· · · · · · ·**

"Sanju, Rei, Sen, where are you?"

Ryuma and his dragons had gone out to deal with the army and he had dragged along any Enterran who could marginally fight regardless of whether they could fly — they just had to make do with dragonriding that they'd never been trained for. Yakumo had gathered all others together and was arranged evacuation, just in case. She was nearly done and had already sent some on their way, only to find the three kittens missing.

She had considered letting Saki and Sakura search, but since they were mute they would not be able to call their names. Most guards she did not trust to not eat them. So, she went herself, despite Unga's protests.

She ran through the castle and ordered the serpents of her dress to taste the air. Soon, they directed her down a specific road. It became apparent quickly she was led to the room Ryuma most frequently used to scry and consult his ministers.

Why would the kittens have gone there? She had expected them to go the the arenas, despite having been forbidden to fight; Ryuma didn't trust them yet due to their loyalty to her. The road to the arenas was locked though, so perhaps they had gone to that room to try and open it?

As she approached she hears noise, but it wasn't any feline bickering. She found the enemy instead.

A group of humanoid crows was in the mirror chamber, hacking into the magic of the castle. All had their hands on a mirror and around the room, cards were scattered and the mirrors showed the magic symbols that held together the entire castle and its impossibilities.

Yakumo didn't hesitate to step into the room and eject her silver serpents, charging them with the power of her gem. Forcefully she pulled all the Enterrans away from the walls and piled them at the center of the room.

Safe one.

The apparent leader was a little too quick and managed to cut off the snakes aimed at him. She withdraw it and stared him down.

"Yakumo Shindo. I can't say it is an honor to meet you, but it might be interesting," he said. "My name is Rabe."

Yakumo quickly carded two of the attacking soldiers, but returned focus to the leader. She had twelve snakes out and seriously considered carding him too. If the magic of the castle fell, it would be the end of all they had here. He seemed to read this intent, for his next words were,

"If I am gone, Karas will be the supervisor of Mechano City. From what my queen told me, he has been so in the first timeline. He is a skilled general but a cruel governor. Are you certain you want to kill me?"

Yakumo drew back her serpents a little, frowning at the unusually calm bird. From her downloaded knowledge, she had a vague idea he was one of Lucifen's generals or ministers — the bird definitions were blurred greatly — and that he was known as one of the kindest. He apparently had won over Mechano City with peaceful negotiations. Even if it weren't for her compassion, the welfare of the robots was crucial : they'd be their strongest allies against Lucifen.

"If what I've learned of you is true, it might have been nice meeting you in another time and place," she said.

"So you've gone over the information you obtained."

"Off course. Now, is there a way I can make you stop hacking our magic without carding you?"

He did not low his hand from the mirror.

"Do you really want Lucifen to lose? Who is supposed to rule then? Ryuma? Some other of the uncivilized Enterrans that crowd this planet?"

"That's for later."

"Why not for now? Did you never realize that most Enterrans are slow of mind? They live in a medieval state and have no advanced for three hundred years, leeching on left overs of the human world instead. Mashuranbo bred a world where strength alone rules. What else would he do, as the god of destruction? My queen tries to undo all this. Her nation will be strong and strive to advance by breeding intelligence."

"You honestly believe that?"

"You honestly believe not? You learned nothing from the information of our wired?"

"It tells me that your queen is skilled at propaganda, no more. I agree with neither Mashuranbo's savagery nor Lucifen's closed hierarchy. I'll admit I would prefer your queen's world though, if only for the right to not be murdered. But that world won't include me and my people, would it?"

"Is that all that matters to you?"

"No, it just means I still see hope for a different future altogether."

"Humans would have a chance, should they still exist. My lady no longer is the one she was once."

"I don't get that impression from your digital world. I know what humans are portrayed as in your culture, it's not much different from the rest of the world. Us, the humans, _the devils_."

Rabe sighed. "Excuse us for giving our people freedom of speech. Please understand, most of our nation does not know humans were very alike to them, more so than the average Enterran. Like your friends before they met you, they know no better than to believe the rumors of humans being evil. Do you hold them responsible for what they can't know?"

"Lucifen does not try very hard to change it, even if she knows the truth."

"There is no point for it. Humans are gone, let the nation focus their hatred on the humans. Strange as it is, it makes them more tolerant of the other Enterrans, because they share that hatred."

Yakumo frowned. "Hatred isn't truly unifying, it —"

"Yes, it _is_."

"For how long?"

He opened his beak to respond, hesitated for a long time. Words never came, because the door opened at that point.

"Yakumo, there's in—" Unga froze when she saw the crows. Right then, one of the soldiers burst forward and grabbed the old magician, twisting her arm behind her back.

Yakumo instinctively surged her snakes forward, but due to this didn't notice quick enough what that other sound was.

Two shots were fired, energy charges. One was caught by the magic of the dress, programmed to defend Yakumo but not anyone else.

Rabe lowered his gun and Unga slumped forward, eyes wide and empty.

Along with her, the magical balance of the castle started to wither.

**· · · · · · ·**


End file.
